Candidates increasingly weave politics on Web

When David Sparks managed Olympia Snowe’s first congressional campaign in 1978, he hardly could have imagined what lay ahead in the world of Maine politics. The cyberworld, that is.

Now, at the helm of Republican David Emery’s 2006 bid for governor, Sparks – like nearly every other major political operative this year – is hoping to harness the power of the Internet, which experts agree is quickly transforming the way campaigns organize, advertise and raise money.

“It’s like having rubber tires on a car compared to whatever they used to use on cars,” Sparks said of the changes the Internet has brought to campaigns over the past decade.

Emery, a former congressman from St. George, already has launched his first online advertisement – a polished biographical ad from a Virginia agency featuring pictures of a younger Emery with Snowe and President Ronald Reagan.

Of course, Emery is not the only 2006 Blaine House hopeful with a Web site – a must in any major, modern campaign, experts say.

His two primary challengers, state Sens. Peter Mills of Cornville and Chandler Woodcock of Farmington, are also online as is incumbent Democratic Gov. John Baldacci and his primary opponent, Christopher Miller of Gray. So is Pat LaMarche of the Maine Green Independent Party as well as four of the eight independent candidates vying for the office.

“Any legitimate candidate in a statewide race is going to have a major presence on the Web,” said Mark Brewer, a political scientist with the University of Maine.

Brewer cited a recent study which showed a doubling of the percentage of adult Americans who visited a candidate’s Web site from the 1996 to the 2000 presidential campaigns.

One of that study’s authors, Richard Davis of Brigham Young University in Utah, said the percentage of voters who spend time at a campaign’s site likely has doubled again – to perhaps as high as 10 percent in the 2004 election.

But by and large, Davis said, campaign strategists have figured out that the vast majority of visitors to their sites are not undecided voters searching for a candidate to support.

“You have this picture of this ideal citizen who goes to all the Web sites to help them decide how to vote, but that is not what happens,” said Davis, co-author of the book “Campaigning Online.”

“Web sites are not going to convert anybody,” he continued. “These are people who are partisans looking for reinforcement and possibly to play a role in the campaign.”

Jesse Connolly, who is managing Baldacci’s re-election bid, has high hopes for www.baldacciforgovernor.com, the campaign’s recently launched Web site. Like most, it features a place to donate money, volunteer and read the governor’s positions on the issues. It also features a Web log dubbed “Blogacci,” a forum for readers to comment on issues from the campaign.

Connolly, a tech-savvy twentysomething, managed last year’s gay rights campaign. He said the “No on 1” Web site was a major factor in the victory, allowing the campaign to quickly organize its volunteers.

“It was huge,” Connolly said of the site, which helped boost the Maine Won’t Discriminate campaign’s e-mail list to about 10,000 people who helped fend off an attempt to repeal the new law protecting gays and lesbians from discrimination.

The campaign also used its site to give supporters an early look at advertisements destined for television.

“It connected them,” Connolly said of the ad previews, which doubled as fundraisers. “And if it brought in a few dollars, that was good too.”

By the end of that campaign, online fundraising brought in roughly $153,000 – 16 percent of the campaign’s total, Connolly said.

In order to be seen by a wider audience, Emery’s online ad eventually will make it to the television airwaves, Sparks said. Unlike the relatively free exposure on the Web site, however, the television ads could cost tens of thousands of dollars a week, according to some campaign watchers.

Advertising on a candidate’s Web site is no substitute for the coveted prime-time television spots, most experts agree. And, although growing in importance, the Internet isn’t likely to replace door-to-door campaigning or direct mailings to supporters that have been the staples of past campaigns.

But the day is close at hand, experts say, when even the most traditional politician must venture online to reach voters.

“I don’t think we’re quite there yet,” Brewer said, “but we’re pretty close.”