Unfortunately, his network server could handle only about 10,000 users at a time, and his page crashed as it was flooded with a million attempted hits.
Dole who is credited by Internet anthropologists with making history when he announced his campaign's Web site during a debate with Clinton that year. And even among those on the Net, many candidates put up the money for a Web site because they worry that if they fail to do so, they will seem like technological dinosaurs.Ĭandidates for office began creating Web pages in earnest during the 1994 electoral cycle, and it is, perhaps surprisingly, Republican presidential contender Robert J.
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"But they don't know yet how to use it."įew candidates surveyed said they will spend more than $2,000 to design and maintain their presence on the Net. That is good," said Jonah Seiger, co-founder of Mindshare Internet Campaigns in Washington, which provides Web services for coalitions and trade groups. "Now everybody realizes they need to be on, that it's important to have your Web page and your e-mail lists. The California Secretary of State's election Web site had a mind-bending 1.8 million hits in one 24-hour period on the night of the June primary.Ī July survey by the publication Campaigns and Elections of 270 local, state and federal candidates found that 63 percent had a Web site and another 21 percent expected to be on the Internet by Election Day. And many of them are using the Net to keep an eye on politicians or subjects they care about, be it the environment, abortion rights, or taxes - all special issues that are represented on the Internet with their own Web sites. Here in California, the most connected, wired state in the union, a recent Field Poll revealed that 46 percent of likely voters have e-mail addresses. The figures alone point to the potential power of the tool in the right hands. Almost every major candidate, and many local ones too, are maintaining World Wide Web sites, where they offer not only the standard fare of resumes and positions, but are encouraging their supporters to donate money online, to pass along e-mail endorsements to friends and newspapers and to watch and participate in the campaigns - all from the comfort of their computers. This political season is seeing more use of the Internet by campaigns than ever before. Some 250 people entered the cyber town hall, and while it is impossible to know the political affiliations of those who logged on, Patton is certain that some of Boxer's supporters went online to quiz her opponent. That evening, as Fong sat before a computer in a television studio, he was asked by online netizens about his stands on HMO reform, the Clinton impeachment inquiry, education and abortion.
Whatever else this "historic chat" accomplished, it was a flicker of the possible future of the virtual politics promised by the revolutionary power of the Internet. "Please stop in and let him know your opinions," he wrote to Boxer's wired troops. Last Thursday afternoon, Rob Patton, director of technical operations for the Barbara Boxer Senate campaign, sat down at his keyboard and sent an e-mail message to 3,000 supporters across the country, alerting them that Republican challenger Matt Fong would be appearing that evening online at a virtual town hall meeting hosted by NBC's affiliate here.