The Web on the Candidates

As reported by James Kotecki, Wesley Clark has started to produce videos for his website, stopIranWar.com. While Kotecki is upset that Clark isn't mentioning Kotecki's name responding directly to voters, it's an encouraging step and a sign that Clark may be getting closer to announcing his candidacy.

Giuliani's video closet: PrezVid's Peter Hauck has some advice for Rudy: "Buckle Up, It's Gonna Be a Bumpy Ride." After listing the many of Rudy's less-than-conservative merits, Hauck posts two videos -- one a mayoral campaign video from 1989 showing a very family-friendly Rudy, the other a "Welcome to CPAC" video showcasing Rudy's liberal positions on social issues -- that should provide fodder for his conservative critics in weeks and months to come.

Candidates should be doing more video-driven online fundraising.

The Politico's Jonathan Martin posts a breakdown of Mitt's numbers, as claimed by the campaign. If you look beyond the claim, the numbers just don't add up.

Total Raised for the quarter: $23, 434, 634
Total Disbursements: $11, 570, 981
Money Raised Online: $7, 206, 216
Total Donors: 32,074
Itemized ($200+) donors: 12,236 (38%)
Non-itemized donors: 19,838 (62%)

The Hotline breaks that online number down further.

$3,365,625.59 in pure and simple website fundraising, and
$3,840,591.00 raised through Quick ComMitt, our online fundraising pledge entry tool

Some other numbers to keep in mind:

Obama, 50,000 online donors, $6.9 million
Edwards, 30,000 online donors, over $3 million online
Clinton, probably around 30,000 online donors, $4.2 million online

With all the attention being paid to how much money the candidates are raising online, I think we need to better understand what “online fundraising” means.  Does it just include funds that are solicited and fulfilled online, or does it also include any funds submitted through the candidates’ online contribution forms, regardless of how solicited?  Or what if people mail in a check based on an email solicitation?  You see, this is not such a simple question.

Further, while we tend to focus on online campaign strategies in isolation from other campaign strategies, that view is already dated.  The boundaries between online and offline campaign strategies are blurred, at a minimum, and obliterated at most.  One only need look at the spike in Obama’s YouTube views following the extensive coverage CNN and the rest of the media gave to the 1984 video to see that offline developments drive online activity.

So let me suggest a typology for online fundraising:

1. The solicitation and fulfillment are both online
2. The solicitation is offline and the fulfillment is online
3. The solicitation is online and the fulfillment is offline

This is my debut for comment. I've followed the discussion on Mitt$ and online fundraising generally and want to weigh in. The online world is NOT independent of the paper/direct mail and telemarketing world. They operate best when used together.

GOP front runners seem to be bailing on the September 17 YouTube/CNN debate. Democrats should rejoice at this news. Here's why.

Fallout from Elizabeth Edwards' quote; Rocketboom on how Denver '08 will be open access; cracks in the liberal-left; bundling for the unbundled; Ellen Goodman weighs in on net-gender; YouTube YouChoose has issues; ABC and NBC liberate pres-video; Republicans use the net for stealth attacks; and we win an award...

The problems of comparing ActBlue to ABC PAC; a profile of Robert Bluey's Conservative Bloggers Briefings; and why aren't more candidates using Google Adwords to advertise against news- and issues-based keywords?

Reactions across the web to the first MySpace/MTV Presidential Dialogue with John Edwards; capturing the youth vote is just about showing up on Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube; an anti-Hillary Clinton Facebook group continues to grow; a new rock video promotes fact-checking site Politifact; a strange story about John Edwards, a woman he met in a bar, and some hard-to-find promotional videos; a profile of young and energetic Ron Paul supporters; ActBlue is now helping local politicians raise money; and the winner of Mitt Romney's ad contest is announced, and no, it isn't the creator of the "Way!" video.

David All's Slatecard pulls in its first modest haul, but no Republican site has managed to approximate ActBlue's success; Fred Thompson decentralizes his volunteer calling methods, released voter names into the wild; VA Senate opponents Jim Gilmore and Mark Warner post wildly different campaign videos; and House Republicans are Twittering, are "at the bar downtown talking 2 voterz";