Page 200 - Information and American Democracy Technology in the Evolution of Political Power

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Campaigns for Office in 2000
After winning the New Hampshire primary on the first of February, the
campaign received a surge of donations in a very short period, about
$1 million in two days. The capacity for citizens to respond immedi-
ately with their wallets to news events appeared to stimulate donations,
a finding consistent with the results of survey analysis of donations.
According to a McCain campaign official, nearly half of those giving
money through the Internet were first-time donors to a political cam-
paign, and a large majority were younger than forty-five. 199 In the
two-week period following the New Hampshire victory over George
Bush, McCain’s campaign signed up about 26,000 volunteers through
the Internet and received another $2.5 million in donations on top
of the million from the first two days. By April, McCain had raised
about $6.4 million through his web site and collected a self-reported
142,000 electronic mail addresses of volunteers. 200 The McCain cam-
paign exploited the on-line donation surge itself as a newsworthy event,
and was successful at generating beneficial media stories about the rush
to donate.
Most journalists covering the on-line donations phenomenon missed
an important subtlety. Some of the “Internet money” was simply tradi-
tional donations that candidates steered through their web sites in lieu
of accepting checks or telephone pledges. 201 Across the board, reports of
“Internet donations” in the 2000 races included both funds that would
have been secured by telephone or fund-raising events and “new” money
that was likely stimulated directly by the Internet option for making do-
nations. By mid-February of 2000, the top four presidential candidates
had received a total of about $7.5 million on line, which constituted
5 percent of fund-raising totals. By the end of the campaigns in 2000, the
extent to which the candidates’ funding came through Internet-based
channels varied substantially. McCain reported a little over $6 million,
which represented about 20 percent of his total of $31 million, but it is
unclear what fraction of that amounted to funds steered from traditional
mechanisms for donating. Gore, on the other hand, received about $10

199
Quoted in Glen Warchol, “Web Becomes Player in Presidential Race,” Salt Lake
Tribune, Feb. 2, 2000, p. A1.
200
Figures from Max Fose, Inter@ctive Week,p.60.
201 Accordingtoacampaignofficial,intheracetoreportInternetdonationstothemedia,
several campaigns taking donations by telephone and at traditional fund-raisers had
staff enter these donations through the campaigns’ web sites, and then reported the
funds as “Internet donations” as an indicator of swelling interest in the campaign.
This practice of steering funds aside, a nontrivial amount of funding did flow directly
into the campaigns’ web sites.

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