US Election 2004: The year the Web came of age

The money game
In all likelihood, Dean's greatest impact on the election process wasn't his piloting of online grassroots interaction through sites such as Meetup.com. Rather, the most compelling element of his campaign in the eyes of many political minds was his breakout success at generating online campaign contributions.

Dean's ability to encourage large numbers of supporters to donate small amounts of money electronically was one of his greatest assets, and arguably what kept him in the race throughout the democratic primaries, says Grant Reeher, associate professor of political science at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Reeher says presidential candidates still have room to improve their online fund-raising efforts but admitted that the 2004 campaign has finally showed that the Web is a powerful finance tool.

"The way the campaigns are looking at the Internet is still dominated by the approach that the Web is a tool to leverage things out of the public, and the most dramatic example is the way the Internet has been used this time around to generate funds," Reeher says. "Howard Dean is obviously exhibit A, but Kerry has raised a lot of money as well, particularly at important points in the campaign."

Reeher says the Bush campaign has been less forthcoming about how much money it has raised online, but DeFeo says his site's financial efforts have also been well-received by the public.

"We raised nearly $14m online during the primaries alone, and we continue to raise money for the president, as well as the Republican Party, and the general election legal and compliance fund," he says. "But we felt that fund-raising was really only a piece of what we do. What's been important to us is that we have a multidimensional e-campaign, rather than focus on the single goal of raising money online. We're more about taking action."

According to the Federal Election Committee's campaign finance Web site, total fund-raising for the Bush and Kerry campaigns was $537 million as of May 30, representing a 62 percent increase over the amount of funds raised at the same point in the 2000 battle. Also increasing were the number of small contributions, totalling less than $200. As a rule, the majority of online contributions fall into this category, according to Ron Rapoport, chair of the government department at the College of William and Mary.

But unlike Dean, Kerry has not fared as well as his rival in generating larger numbers of smaller contributions, says Rapoport, whose research indicates that Bush is winning that battle.

"Republicans have always been much better at (asking for smaller donations) than the Democrats," he says. "In spite of what one would think, the Democrats did much less well on small contributions than Republicans. Democrats did as well with big contributions, and I think what this showed was... that it wasn't really laziness but that they weren't really doing their homework."

To Kerry online-campaign leader Ross, his site's ability to garner donations has had a major effect, despite any numbers to the contrary. He labelled the development of the medium "a profound difference" from earlier campaigns and argued that online fund-raising efforts are certain to grow even more aggressive in future races.