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Is the Revolution Still Revolutionary?
By nathanleewilcox | April 5, 2007
Some of my fellow political consultants are grousing that the 2008 Presidential campaigns are really the same old same old — nothing innovative is happening compared to the revolutionary Howard Dean campaign of 2003.
Well, that may be so. In terms of formal innovation, not alot is happening this cycle. Instead what is happening is that the innovations of 2003 are being scaled. Where Howard Dean made waves with an unprecedented June 2003 mass rally of 3500 in Austin, Texas, Barack Obama had 20,000 people at his January 2007 Austin event.
Where Howard Dean shocked the world by raising, what around $7million (?) in the second quarter of 2003, Barack Obama has raised $25million — from over 70,000 individual donors. Wow. Those of us who were involved with Howard Dean or Wesley Clark’s pioneering campaigns of 2003 may be blase, but there are millions of other folks who are new to Internet organizing and they’re having a massive impact.
In a political fundraising world traditionally dominated by lobbyists and wealthy business executives, small-dollar donor Hrishi Karthikeyan found a way to make his own splash, right from his desk.
With tools offered free on Barack Obama’s Internet site, Karthikeyan, 28, created his own “South Asians for Obama” Web portal to gather money from friends who were inspired to support his favorite candidate. Within days, he was able to forward to Obama’s presidential campaign $1,600 - more than he ever planned to give on his own - in bundled contributions from those who saw the targeted site.
“I started hearing from people I never met,” he said.
Karthikeyan is part of a movement that political strategists hope will transform Internet fundraising from a spigot, capable of providing candidates quick spurts of cash here and there, into an around-the-clock supplier of major dollars
Dean’s campaign manager Joe Trippi will be joining James and I on HeadingLeft radio today to talk about what it all means. Call (646) 652-4803 if you want to contribute to the conversation.
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