Year of the Internet in Politics

An excellent retrospective on the influence of the Internet on
this year’s presidential race appeared today in a nationally
syndicated column by Ronald Brownstein. He starts with a repetition
of the fundraising success of the Dean Campaign, but then ventures into
more interesting
and novel observations.

But other campaigns are also showing creativity. Later this week, retired
Gen. Wesley K. Clark will mark a milestone in the Internet’s political
development by participating in an online chat with 10 prominent blog
hosts – all of which have committed to posting the exchange on their
sites. That could allow Clark to address a huge audience outside the
reach of the conventional print and broadcast media, something candidates
couldn’t do before the Internet’s emergence.

This is big news in the Dowbrigade’s book.  Who are the 10 blessed
bloggers? Why weren’t WE invited? Has anyone else heard about this?

Then there’s Michigan, which is testing the Internet’s political value
in an even more profound way.

Last week, the Michigan Democratic Party began what is probably the most
ambitious experiment ever in online voting. Michigan Democrats can vote
by mail or on the Internet through Feb. 7, when the party will hold its
presidential caucuses. The party began accepting requests for mail and
Internet ballots on its Web site at 12:01 a.m. New Year’s Day; within
the first 24 hours, about some 1,500 people had signed up.

Mark Brewer, the party’s executive chair, says he expects about 400,000
people to participate in the caucuses and about two-thirds of them to
vote online or through the mail.

This is also a blockbuster. The first state to actually authorize on-line
voting in an election that actually means something. We need to watch
this one closely. But all is not unalloyed joy in LaLa Land, as far as
the Internet being a panacea to fix our failing democracy.

Still, even some Dean supporters – such as Wayne County Commissioner
Keith D. Williams, an African American – worry that the Internet option,
by making voting so much easier for affluent families, will dilute the
influence of low-income and minority voters. Michigan’s intriguing experiment
is likely to remain an exception until homes without the Internet are
themselves the exception in every neighborhood.

from the LA Times