Support Bush, Win a Mouse Pad

John Pinckney of Muncie, Indiana, thinks President Bush is "demonstrating genuine leadership" in steering the nation's economy. So do Kyle Klink of Rochester, New York; Stephanie Johnson of Milton, Massachusetts; and Michael Snyder of Merced, California. In the past two weeks, they and three dozen others have published identical letters to media sites, including the Boston Globe and Chicago Tribune--with the help of some online political maneuvering.

The source of all these letters is GOP Team Leader, a site operated by the Republican National Committee. With a few mouse clicks, members of GOP Team Leader can log on to the site, forward messages to media outlets, and collect points they can later exchange for prizes. The strategy was unveiled in The Inquirer, a British technology site.

Critics say the RNC is using Web tools to simulate grass-roots support--a technique known as an "astroturf" campaign.

"We're just trying to use technology to get people more involved in the political process," replies Chuck DeFeo, online communications director for the RNC in Washington, D.C. He says the letter has been published about 44 times, but denies the astroturf charge.

They're also demonstrating the increasingly savvy ways organizations use the Web as a political tool.

The GOP site's Action Center makes it easy to search for print and broadcast outlets by geographic area, then fire off a prefab letter or compose one of your own. DeFeo points out that members are encouraged to edit text in the prewritten letters or add their own comments.

The payoff? The site awards "GOPoints" that letter senders can accumulate and spend on a variety of goods. For example, you collect five points for contacting the media and another two if the outlet publishes your letter. When you reach 95 points, you can trade them in for a "Team Leader" mouse pad. Other prizes include T-shirts (185 points), portable coolers (375 points), or leather portfolios (525 points).

"People aren't doing this for the points," DeFeo says. "They're doing it because they support the President's agenda."

Using the Web to mass-mail prewritten letters is nothing new, but the RNC's incentive program is "innovative," says Mike McCurry, former press secretary for the Clinton administration. McCurry is now chief executive of Grassroots Enterprises, which offers CD resources and technological tools for political campaigns.

"They're bringing e-commerce techniques to political mobilization," McCurry says. "Our technology is capable of doing all the same stuff, but we don't incorporate tchotchkes the way the RNC is doing."

Republicans are far from the only ones using Web technology to spur political action.

For example, the Democratic National Committee site provides a way to e-mail prewritten letters to members of Congress. The National Organization for Women and the National Right to Life Committee both use the same technology as GOP Team Leader for locating media outlets or sending prefab letters to Congress.

However, sites that offer incentive programs for targeting media outlets appear scarce, and the RNC site may be unique in its approach. Politics made big strides online with the 2000 campaign, and the parties have stayed wired since then.

Most large newspapers weed out astroturf letters, says Scott Bosley, executive director of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. However, smaller publications--which comprise most of those that ran the RNC letter--lack the resources to identify such campaigns, he notes.

"I would consider what the RNC did astroturfing," he says. "Most newspapers would throw these letters out."