As Governor Warner and Forward Together PAC focus ever more intently on the 2006 races, I thought that I might do a roundup of the online techniques that Democratic candidates around the country are using as they try to win seats or retain the seats they already hold.
In this post, I'm focusing on U.S. House races. I'll follow up with a post on U.S. Senate races down the road. Campaigns for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, of course, tend to lack the funding that statewide races often have. They may not have the staff resources or infrastructure needed to engage at campaign technologies'cutting edge. (Though FTPAC has tried to help that, by contributing financial support to each of the campaigns mentioned below.) What's clear is that, in this cycle, many candidates are focusing their efforts on free or low-cost techniques to enhance the work they do online.
With that, on to the roundup.
Charlie
Melancon, running for reelection in Louisiana's 3rd District, has a full-color
downloadable walk card (.pdf format) that supporters can print and hand
it out door-to-door in his district in the southeastern part of the state.
Darcy Burner, a first-time candidate in Washington's 8th, lets volunteers add “Doorbelling
for Darcy" events right
to Outlook using vCal.
Diane Farrell, in Connecticut's 4th, has a running
tally of the cost of the Iraq war. ($297,121,600,300 as I write this.) Farrell
has also begun a weekly
podcast, now in its second week.
Running in Columbus, Ohio, Mary Jo Kilroy's website features an animated photo display, courtesy of the free Flickr photo-sharing community. Ken Lucas, running to reclaim his old seat in Kentucky's 4th, has a tool by which constituents can post their own personal endorsements like this one by “Bill from La Grange.” Lucas updates the time-tested Write a Letter to The Editor with contact information for the Bluegrass State's newspapers, as does Chris Murphy, running in Connecticut’s 5th. Murphy's site also features a straight-to-the-web biographical video, hosted by the free YouTube video distribution service.
In fact, many Democratic House candidates are working with video this time around. Visitors to the site of Linda Stender, running in New Jersey's 7th, will find YouTube-hosted videos featuring Ellen Malcolm of EMILY's List and Stender's recent appearance on Larry King Live. Running in central Florida's 8th district, Charlie Stuart looks straight into the camera and welcomes visitors to his campaign in a video on his website. As does Monica Lindeen, running for Montana's sole congressional seat. John Spratt (SC-5th), Kirsten Gillibrand (NY-20th), Peter Welch (VT-AL), Stephanie Herseth (SD-AL), and Bruce Braley (IA-1) all prominently feature their campaign ads on their sites. (Braley also only offers his complete site not only in Spanish, but in Bosnian as well.)
A
bit of a step up in online video, Tim Mahoney in south central Florida's 16th
is using a new video tool that displays a small talking Tim when you hit the site's homepage. Mahoney's site also has a similar
video of his daughter Bailey on his "Meet
Tim" page. (You may have noticed that we use the same technique here
on the FTPAC site.)
New Mexico Attorney General Patricia Madrid, running against the incumbent Heather Wilson in the 1st District, has a tool through which voters can submit their stories about the “Bush/Wilson Medicare Part D Disaster.” Madrid is also running an Energy Independence Petition Drive. In it, she calls on Rep. Wilson and the Republican Congress to “stop catering to big oil and start standing up for the American people.”
Zack Space, running in Ohio's 18th, also has a petition -- his in support of an ethics pledge. ("I pledge to you, as your Congressman, I will accept: 1. No gifts from lobbyists. 2. No trips from lobbyists. 3. No meals from lobbyists. 4. I will never put corporate interests ahead of the people I represent.") Space is also ramping up to build an online community, called Back Space.
Heath Shuler, running in western North Carolina's 11th, asks voters to recommend events he should attend. Shuler also offers Blogger Connection, a tool to connect online writers and activists to his campaign. Also appealing to an online audience is John Yarmuth, running in Kentucky's 3rd, who is supplying attractive banner ads that supporters can post on their blogs or other websites.
Patrick
Murphy has found a creative way
to get his stickers slapped onto the bumpers of cars in Pennsylvania's 8th
District. His site features a clever request to let Team Murphy "Trick
Out Your Motor." Phil Kellam
has a tool to let voters find businesses throughout Virginia's
2nd District offering custom-made "Kellam
Mints."
Bill Winter is asking website visitors where in central Colorado's 6th District to hold an upcoming fundraiser with Governor Warner, his prize as top vote-getter in Forward Together's recent MapChangers contest.
And the winner is...
But Nancy Skinner has, in my mind, perhaps the most appealing online feature. Running in Michigan's 9th, online contributors of $1000 or more to Skinner for Congress get two tickets to an upcoming Joan Jett concert, backstage passes, and a personal phone call from Ms. Jett herself. Rockin'.
I'm sure I've missed a bunch of innovative and inexpensive online techniques Democratic House candidates are using in their 2006 races. If you know of any, please leave them in the comments. I'll update the post with the best of them.
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