Political Pages > Using the Internet for campaigning > Fund Raising > News story #2

The New York Times
July 15, 1999

Candidates Try Asking for Money Via E-Mail

By Rebecca Fairly Raney

In the closing days of June, an important money-raising period for political campaigns, several thousand people received a "personal" message from Elizabeth Dole.

"Yes, it's really me," the e-mail began. After a note thanking recipients for their support, the message asked: "Can I count on you to help me at this crucial moment in my campaign? We truly need dollars now before June 30th to make the difference. And any pledge you make today will be a big help to me."

Several campaigns sent similar appeals for money to their supporters by e-mail in the last few weeks. Campaign managers were trying to boost their total fund-raising take before the mid-year filing of disclosure forms with the Federal Election Commission. These totals are widely seen as a measure of a candidacy's strength.

The first test of candidates' ability to use e-mail solicitations to raise money this campaign season yielded mixed results. Dole raised $37,000, while Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, raised at least $25,000. Officials for the campaign of Steve Forbes, the magazine publisher, would not disclose how much money an e-mail appeal raised in early June.

Meanwhile, an Internet-based political action committee called Move On raised more than $350,000 for five candidates running against members of Congress who backed President Clinton's impeachment.

For the candidates, the money raised through the e-mail appeals represents a fraction of the millions they have raised so far this year. But clearly the potential for political fund-raising online is growing.

In 1996, by way of comparison, Bob Dole raised $60,000 online during the entire campaign. In the last week, McCain and Elizabeth Dole each raised roughly half that amount through e-mail in a matter of days -- the result of building an online base of support and amassing the e-mail addresses of potential contributors.

Since the spring, campaigns for Presidential candidates have created Web sites and encouraged supporters to subscribe to their e-mail newsletters to keep in touch. With the exception of Governor George W. Bush of Texas, most candidates are already sending e-mail to supporters regularly.

The e-mail appeals tested the resolve of that online support. For both Dole and McCain, the electronic call for cash, which directs recipients to contribution forms on their Web sites, brought in more than a quarter of the total amount of money that has been contributed through their sites thus far.

"It's another avenue to reach out to people, a different group of people than with mail appeals and fund-raisers," said Howard Opinsky, a spokesman for the McCain campaign. "It has some real potential for increased democratic activity. We really rely on the support of folks who are interested in our message and might not have been involved before."

About 10,000 people have subscribed to the McCain campaign's e-mail updates, and 268 gave money in response to the e-mail solicitation, the campaign said. The Dole campaign said it keeps an e-mail list of about 12,000 people, and 534 contributed after her e-mail was sent.

"People respond," said Ari Fleischer, a spokesman for the Dole campaign. "We were very impressed with the results of the last e-mail."

Other candidates have either neglected to ask people on their e-mail lists for donations or have made more subtle suggestions. Vice President Al Gore "Gore Mail" newsletter, for example, always ends with a link to the contribution page of the campaign Web site, but it has never included a specific request for money.

The founders of the Move On political action committee appealed to an e-mail list of about 25,000 people who signed up at the height of the impeachment proceedings, encouraging Congress to censure President Clinton and move on. At the time, supporters pledged that they would donate $13 million to political opponents of the members of Congress who led the impeachment drive. When asked for the money, more than 2,000 people responded.

The e-mail appeal from Move On made a case for using the Internet to break the political power of special-interest groups.

"Successful politicians must spend dozens of hours each week soliciting rich people and wealthy special interests," the message said. "It's how candidates finance their campaigns. Successful politicians must speak in sound bites and pick partisan fights to serve the needs of broadcast media. It's how leaders get their message to the public.

"The only way to make real change is to change the rules of the game. The Internet and Move On can be a catalyst for this change -- opening a direct two-way channel between Americans and their representatives."

These early efforts at online fund-raising show that campaign managers are not yet experimenting with fundamentally new ways to rally support and raise money online.

Michael Cornfield, an associate research professor at George Washington University, described the e-mail appeals as "standard direct-mail pitches," a method of adapting old campaign methods instead of creating new ones.

"No one's cutting-edge yet," he said. "Nobody's taking any risks yet. You know what I'm waiting for? Online auctions for candidates."

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