Da Plan Da Plan!

Mark Warner for Senate 2006

The politically moderate and popular governor of Virginia, who many analysts have touted as a potential Democratic Nominee for President in 2008, may face incumbent conservative Republican Senator George Allen for Senate in 2006.

Internet Objectives

If the decision to run in 2006 is made, it is unlikely there will be a primary challenge to face. Senator Allen is well known, well funded, and well liked in the state. It will be difficult to unseat him and the Democrats will need a united front, and therefore should attempt to avoid a costly primary.

Name recognition is not a problem. As governor, everyone in Virginia knows who Mark Warner is. Therefore, one of the main objectives in our Internet campaign will be to highlight the accomplishments of the Warner administration and the states subsequent success as a result.

A recent survey found that both Warner and Allen have identical approval ratings (55%) and identical negative ratings (38%). What this shows is that another objective of our web campaign will be to differentiate Warner from Allen. Governor Warner has substantial crossover appeal, the main reason his name keeps coming up in presidential rumors. Targeting our ecampaign to swing voters, Independents, and moderate republicans can do much to win cross over support.

Message

While the use of HTML email and enewsletters does allow us to target more fine pinned messages to very specific audiences, it is important to ensure that our overall message, whether in an individual email or a press release posted to our entire site, is in line with the message on the entire Warner campaign.

Mark Warner is a proven leader who understands the values of all Virginians. George Allen is out of touch. Virginia’s rich culture is more than just conservative or liberal, it is one Virginia for one future, a future Mark Warner will fight for as Senator.

Nearly all email correspondence, newsletters and press releases will revolve around this central theme while specific issue oriented emails will drive voters to our web site for further information.

The success Mark Warner had in running for governor should be mirrored by our online campaign. Warner won because he was able to appeal to rural Virginians and even Virginians in typically Republican areas. Our online strategy will aggressively target these exact potential voters. To assume rural voters don’t have Internet or are not tech savvy is a fatal mistake. At the very least, using the Internet to communicate with precinct captains and organize an efficient grassroots mobilization organization is these rural areas is worth the time and effort.

Plus / Minus

As mentioned Mark Warner enjoys relative popularity, high name recognition, a reputation as a bipartisan, a proven ability to reach across party lines and appeal to even the more traditionally conservative rural regions of the state, and a fairly strong record of achievement as governor. As Chairman of the National Governors Association, he has garnered National recognition for his advances of Education programs, not just in Virginia, but nationwide. Recently, under his guidance, the

On the downside, given all that, his 55% approval rating could be higher. Mr. Allen has a distinct advantage as well, being that he already is Senator. It would be a very high profile race in a non-presidential election year thus drawing national attention, especially given the fact that both men are rumored to seek the presidency in 2008. Despite this attention, voter turnout tends to be lower in non-presidential years which could favor the incumbent. This will make the Internet outreach and mobilization strategy even the more vital.

Targets

Although a success, merely replicating the governor’s campaign in 2001 will not be enough. To be sure a similar strategy must be undertaken to appeal to rural voters in Southern Virginia and even more so go into typically republican strongholds and erode Senator Allen’s base. Mr. Warner can appeal to Republicans, even conservatives who supported his fiscal policies that aided in the economic recovery of the state. The reciprocal is not true however, Mr. Allen does not have to ability to appeal to Democrats. Therefore it is necessary to mobilize the democratic base and persuade moderate Republicans who may feel Mr. Allen is too conservative.

Now that we have discussed what needs to be done we must focus on the how.

More to come....

Um, been a weird day so....

Master of Your Domain

As I delve into the formulation of the web strategy plan for my candidate I started to think about a seemingly minor element but an element that is often overlooked.

Domain name registrations.

How exciting, I know.

BUT....

I recalled a story a few years back involving Warren Sapp, a football player for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at the time.

A Cyber-squatter decided to buy up a bunch of sportstars names with the .coms and hold them for ransom if the unwitting celebrity ever wanted to launch a web site in their name.

To be sure, the squatter managed to completely piss off a very very large man.

The fact is there is money to be made in the cyber-squatting market...even at risk of having a 300lb Defensive Tackle pile driving you into cyber-space.

Corporations have been known to get into bidding wars over seemingly inconsequential things like Business.com which spent a record $7.5 million to get the rights to the name.

When launching a campaign web site, buy all possible combinations you can think of AND those of your opponents. It is guarenteed to drive them batty. Even better, turn it into an anti-site. The classic example being gwbush.com, a parady site directed at you know who.

Here's a fun game. Type your name in a web-browser and see what happens! Does someone own your name? Are you a porn site? Perhaps a crazy stalker has a website shrine devoted completely to you. Or better yet is there an anti-you site already in existance? Apparently, I am an HIV clinic in Indiana... Damien.

Red Rover

Internet Mulatos?

I had a college professor who believed that the only sure fire way to ever end racism was to create one race. No, not like an aryan thing, but rather a mixed race. If everyone in the world were mulato, there would be no racism.

History does actually support such an outlandish claim. There is a theory that the notorious "Lost" colony of Roanoke was actually not really lost but rather the colonists intermarried with the natives there and simply relocated... after a generation all that was left was a mixed race.

"John White found clues when he returned to Roanoke Island. He thought the colonists were trying to tell him that they were going to Croatoan Island but he may have misunderstood the clues. The clues really meant that the colonists were moving inland with the Croatoans because their food supply had ran out. The Croatoans and the colonists became one group as they married one another. A United States government census in the 1800's supports the theory that the colonists married the Croatoans because they used a comparison of names from White's list of colonists to support this fact. Also other historical records from this time say that the Croatoan Indians were called Lumbee Indians. The Lumbees looked like Indians but lived like white settlers."

So, it is not so unbelievable that Jerry Kang's idea that the Internet can be a golden opportunity for at least a form of "cyberquality" is somewhat valid.

One's race will certainly play a role in their social composition, their world view, and beliefs. Stereotypes will unfortunately always have a place in any society. However, the Internet is a means to take away that initial physical or appearance stereotype. You may not readily know that a blogger is African-American, or you may not know a journalist is muslim... but their worldview, opinions, and writing will be influenced greatly by who they are.

Therefore, while the idea of an equal cyberspace is commendable, it is simultaneously condemnable. The intentions may be noble, but in the end I believe that people should not have to be afraid of who they are. African Americans, Hispanics, Asian, Russian, what have you...they are all nationalities and races filled with rich history and cultural traditions. When my great grandparents came to this country from Sicily, they left their culture behind. They wanted to be "American."

The result, I grew up with little to no idea of the rich culture of Sicily with the exception of a recipe for meatballs (I swear to God).

Heritage should not have to be forgotten. Traditions need not be disgarded. Stereotypes don't have to lead to discrimination. The Internet should be a way of expanded culture, of opening doors, not merely providing a cover for people to hide who they are.

Let them eat....cell phones?

The article in The Economist on the "digital divide" certainly has one thing right. The digital divide is not the problem, but merely a symptom of a larger more fundamental problem.

"Marriages don't break up on account of infedelity, it's just a symptom that something else is wrong."

"Oh really, well that symptom is *&^%ing my wife."

In much the same way, the digital divide is not going to be bridged by waving a magic wand and suddenly the third world looks like a scene from a Steven Spielberg movie (Ai/ Minority Report Speilberg, not Jaws/Saving Private Ryan Speilberg...you know...you know).

The article understands this concept and rather than trying to build Starbucks' (what is the plural os Starbucks? Starbucki?) with wireless Internet we chould help these nations by providing them with....cell phones?

Oh I see, so then they can use the cell phones to call Domino's and ORDER A PIZZA CAUSE THEY ARE FRICKEN STARVING! Oh if only they had cell phones in Africa then maybe that would cure the Aids epidemic. What's that? You have malaria? Here, have a cell phone. Because lord knows nothing makes me feel better then screaming into a 5 inch piece of plastic trying to find a signal even though they claim to be the "raise the bar" cell phone company, yet I have to run outside on my balcany every time my phone rings or I miss the call, then I have to haggle with the rep b/c my nighttime minutes now start at 9, when it used to be 7, and all of the sudden my voicemail doesn't work, and when I lost my phone do you think they'd replace it for free? No, of course not, of course not, so yeah, that is our gift to you underdeveloped civilizations of this planet, welcome to the club. Affordable pharmecuticals and clean water? How about for an extra $12.95 a month we just might throw in unlimited text messeging.

Where have you gone Denny J?

Last Tuesday marked the triumphant return of Dr. Dennis Johnson, and he did not disappoint.

His depiction of the Congress Online project paints a picture of our dim reality: Most of our representatives are old farts who haven't the slightest idea what the word blog means, let alone who to write one.

His timeline, beginning in 1994 with Senator Ted Kennedy being the pioneer of House websites, demonstrated just how reluctant Congress has been to embrace new technology, or new anything for that matter. It would take nearly ten full years, that's almost a decade people, before all members of Congress followed Kennedy's example and created a website of their own.

It is an interesting tribute to our political systems resistance to change. The way in which Congress has accepted the Internet acts almost as a microcosm of how our entire poltical system works. The status quo is placed at the forefront, change is resisted, but eventually there is progress.

But credit must be given where credit is due. There are now 160 members of the Congressional Internet Caucus, political blogs are all the rage and even some Congressional Web sites are beginning to use them (although we have discussed at length the problems with this), and we continue to see the impact the Internet plays in campaigns, whether from a fundraising point of view or from an organizational standpoint.

A few months ago, Rightclick Strategies (shameless plug) released a poster of milestones in the digital decade, showing a similar timeline of how Politicians have slowly yet surely embraced new technologies. So as we discuss the revolutionary possibilities of the Internet, it is important to keep in mind that if this timeline is any indication the snails pace at which this "revolution" will occur.