November 10, 2007

Politics - Parallel Party Pushes Democrats

the following article appeard in National Journal's 11/10 print edition

After President Bush vetoed an expansion of a children's health program on October 3, Democratic leaders ramped up pressure on Republicans to override his rejection. A loose-knit army of online bloggers sprang into action -- but with a different focus. They targeted five wayward House Democrats who had not promised to vote with their party. After a flurry of telephone calls and newspaper advertisements, three of the five Democrats backed the override.

"We felt there was a little bit of hypocrisy in the Democrats' tactics," activist Howie Klein told McClatchy News Service. "Here they were with this expensive campaign to draw attention to Republicans who voted against the bill, but no one was saying anything about the Democrats who voted against it."

Whipping congressional votes into line is normally the province of political parties, but the aggressively liberal bloggers who nip at the heels of the Democratic Party are doing it. In fact, they have found that the Internet lets them run a parallel political operation without much money. And they often act without support from party leaders, as when MoveOn.org's September ad criticizing Gen. David Petraeus as "General Betray Us" forced Democratic presidential candidates to defend the U.S. commander in Iraq.

Freelance liberal activists -- who have dubbed themselves "the Net-roots" -- have usurped a broad range of traditional activities, says Gary Jacobson, a political scientist at the University of California (San Diego). In the textbook The Logic of American Politics, Jacobson and colleague Samuel Kernell list these functions of modern political parties:

* Recruit and train leaders.

* Help combine varying interests and groups into coalitions and help channel and constrain political conflict.

* Help foster political participation.

Each of these tasks has been taken on by Internet activists, Jacobson says. "The Net-roots are not the first group to do so," he adds. "Their efforts reflect the nature of the party. The Democrats are a diverse coalition. Competing factions within it are always trying to bring the party closer to their agenda."

Conservatives blog, of course, but none embraces the Net-roots label. Their touchstone is still talk radio more than the Internet.

When asked why they became political activists, many liberal bloggers cite a perceived lack of "progressive" voices in the media during the 2000 recount fight and the 2002-03 run-up to the Iraq war. They say that despite conventional wisdom about the "liberal" media, conservatives have successfully "worked the refs" for years. In fact, many liberal bloggers admire the message machine that conservatives have developed. In a Meet the Press interview to promote his book, Crashing the Gate, DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas described the conservative echo chamber this way: "If they want to reach the Wall Street base, they can talk to them through The Wall Street Journal editorial board. If they want to reach religious voters, they can talk to them through The 700 Club. Blue-collar workers: Rush Limbaugh and AM radio. They have the ability to reach everybody at any moment in time."

Net-roots are part of a broader echo chamber on the left. Washington think tanks Media Matters and the Center for American Progress have strong Web presences that often provide initial news items, which then spread through such hubs as Eschaton (whose primary author, Duncan Black, is now a Media Matters senior fellow), DailyKos, and Talking Points Memo. Moving west, Arianna Huffington's The Huffington Post provides a new-media platform for Hollywood voices, including Alec Baldwin, Laurie David, and Harry Shearer. The Huffington Post also serves as a blogging point of entry for Democratic lawmakers ranging from Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., to Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif. People who don't read blogs pick up items through cable shows such as Countdown With Keith Olbermann and The Colbert Report. (From the purists' point of view, Jon Stewart's The Daily Show is too often off-message.)

Some blogs, such as Howard Dean consultant Jerome Armstrong's MyDD, put a sharp focus on electoral messaging. In 2006, bloggers coordinated links to articles critical of GOP candidates so that Google searches of a candidate's name would return a negative story close to the top of the page. This "Googlebombing" campaign was the brainchild of then-MyDD contributor Chris Bowers.

MyDD also performed more traditional message research. Seeing an opportunity to gain early insight into voter sentiment in 2006, MyDD raised money from readers to commission a poll of people who had voted in a June special election in California's 50th District in which Republican Rep. Brian Bilbray defeated Democrat Francine Busby, a women's studies professor. At the time, many bloggers, particularly those at Talking Points Memo, believed that Republican corruption was going to be the issue to ride in the autumn. MyDD's polling showed that most voters did not view one party as more trustworthy than the other. The group wrote a memo urging all Democrats to run against the Iraq war, based on the poll finding that 63 percent of Republicans believed that Bush had made significant mistakes in Iraq.

Like the parties' official campaign committees, the Net-roots began the 2006 and 2008 election cycles by trying to identify House and Senate races where they could best help Democrats. However, instead of choosing the candidates with the best polling numbers and fundraising prowess, national Net-roots blogs such as DailyKos, MyDD, and Swing State Project relied on local blogger buzz to pick candidates -- often based on such factors as a candidate's early opposition to the Iraq war, veteran status, or embrace of economic populism.

That led to several contested primaries. On the House side, the party openly campaigned against Net-roots favorite and 2004 nominee Jerry McNerney, instead supporting the more conservative Steve Filson, a former Navy pilot. McNerney defeated Filson handily in the California primary and went on to oust Republican Rep. Richard Pombo in the general election. Local blogs (notably Raising Kaine) gathered signatures and fundraising pledges to persuade Jim Webb to run for Senate in Virginia. They helped Webb to defeat the more experienced, establishment-backed telecom lobbyist Harris Miller in the primary and Republican Sen. George Allen in November.

Another theme in Moulitsas's Crashing the Gate is the need for Democrats to shift power away from single-issue advocacy groups, such as labor unions and those supporting abortion rights or the environment, and toward a broader progressive movement. This came to pass in the elections of Webb and Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., who as strong supporters of gun rights could have been snubbed by establishment liberals.

Beltway consultants are also a frequent Net-roots target, and no organized Net-roots effort went after them more effectively than MyDD's AdWatch series critiquing 2006 Democratic candidates' television and radio ads. Unlike traditional media assessments, which focus on the veracity of ads, MyDD's efforts compared them with their California polling results. One of the most common blogger criticisms of early 2006 ads was that they were not partisan enough. Bloggers insisted that candidates clearly identify themselves as Democrats and hit Republicans hard for not holding Bush accountable.

Perhaps the most impressive 2006 Net-roots project was the "Use It Or Lose It" campaign, which pressured House Democratic incumbents in safe seats to transfer campaign cash to help challengers. Bloggers at MyDD, who spearheaded the drive, say they channeled more money to challenger races ($2.3 million) than they collected in their direct fundraising efforts through ActBlue ($2.2 million).

Labor unions are the classic example of independent forces performing party functions; they have been recruiting candidates, funding media campaigns, and turning out voters for generations. In 2006, the unions went up against the more independent Net-roots in the Connecticut Democratic primary fight between Sen. Joe Lieberman and cable executive Ned Lamont. Largely because of his success in securing jobs at the Groton naval base, Lieberman won the endorsements of the state AFL-CIO, Teamsters, and National Association of Government Employees. Lieberman lost to Lamont in the primary but, with labor support, he won the general election as an independent -- leaving Democrats with one less reliable vote in their Senate caucus.

Net-root endeavors such as the Connecticut campaign and the "General Betray Us" ad have often angered traditional liberals. New York Times columnist Frank Rich, a fierce Bush critic, described the ad as a "left-wing brand of juvenile name-calling" that "allowed the war's cheerleaders to hyperventilate about a sideshow."

The bloggers have not backed down. Promoting a video of Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash., facing constituent hostility over his support of the Iraq troop surge, Open Left's Matt Stoller wrote, "Slowly, we're going to make this our own damn party." Jacobson warns, however, that such efforts "may make the party less viable by turning off moderate voters. Conservatives outnumber liberals in the electorate by a wide margin, so Democrats can't succeed without attracting most of the moderates."

Posted by Conn Carroll at November 10, 2007 12:21 PM