News Details

Tribune-Herald

If the presidential nominations were settled by the number of supporters listed on Facebook, the popular social-networking Web site, Sen. Barack Obama would be the top Democrat on the ticket.

Obama has more than 581,300 supporters on his Facebook page, compared to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose page lists more than 119,300 members.And Rep. Ron Paul would be the Republican nominee with more than 84,600 supporters, set alongside Sen. John McCain’s 67,200 backers and Mike Huckabee’s 56,400.

Although elections aren’t settled by how many “friends” candidates rack up on the Web, online campaigning could prove to be a key factor in the presidential candidates’ get-out-the-vote effort — not only in Waco but across Texas. With early voting starting today, candidates have only 15 days before the state’s March 4 primary, making the speed of Internet communication an essential tool for supporters to get out to vote.

The Internet’s effectiveness in political organizing was evident Saturday afternoon when about six volunteers for the Obama campaign hit the streets around Baylor University in support of the U.S. senator from Illinois — despite the chill, wind and rain. Later, 83 Obama supporters gathered at the McLennan County Democratic Party headquarters to learn how to use the campaign’s online phone banking applications and undergo precinct captain training.

Much of the planning for both events was done through my.barackobama.com, a feature of the candidate’s Web site that functions much like any of the popular social-networking destinations on the Internet. Clinton’s campaign Web site has similar features, although fewer individuals and groups appear to have signed up to use them in the Waco area so far.

Presidential candidates have used such technology before, but Obama campaign representatives think it has played a key role in their candidate’s success.“The online stuff doesn’t just exist on its own, over here off to the side,” said Obama campaign spokesman Nick Kimball. “It is part of the fabric of our campaign in every department.”

On Sunday, professional Clinton campaign organizers arrived in Waco to start their get-out-the vote effort and to establish a field office. They, too, will use online phone banking and organizing features, Clinton spokeswoman Adrienne Elrod said.

“Obviously, the Internet is a widely used (medium) these days,” she said. “Folks are using it as a primary resource to gather information, and we want to make early voting in Texas as easy as possible, which is why we have a number of pieces on our Web site to learn how to vote early and where they should go to do it.”

Local Clinton supporters have posted a notice on the candidate’s Web site for an organizational meeting at the county’s Democratic Party headquarters at 6 p.m. on Wednesday.But because groups of Obama supporters were already using the Web site before professional campaign staffers arrived in Waco last week, they have an advantage, Kimball said.

Ryan Young, a 25-year-old Baylor graduate, is one of those volunteers-turned-grass roots organizers on which the Obama campaign relies. He established a group for Baylor Obama supporters that has grown to 54 members since Jan. 31.To keep the professional Obama campaign staffers from having to work out of a hotel room, Young has let them take over his apartment locator business office to use as a temporary campaign headquarters until an official field office is opened.

Young said he had no idea he would become this involved in the campaign when he established the Baylor group on the Obama Web site last month.“I was hoping to get some of the Baylor students together to collaborate and talk about how we could get the Baylor vote out,” he said.

Blake Buchanan, a Baylor electrical engineering student, had a similar goal in mind when he joined a Meetup.com group for Huckabee supporters last November. The group has grown from about five attendees at its first meeting in December to about 40 online supporters of the former Arkansas governor, Blake said.

“It’s a great facet of the campaign, because I can communicate with all sorts of different Meetup groups across the state and country and see what is successful for them,” Buchanan said. “We can do that with just the click of the mouse.”

But most importantly, the Meetup site lets people find local presidential candidate supporters with similar beliefs and organize meetings quickly, he said.

“Without these online tools, there is no way you could have this level of organization on this broad of a scope,” he said. “There is no way you could contact that many people and make decisions in hours.”

But while many Internet campaigners tout online networking as the next big thing in politics, they also admit it has limitations. Many older voters are not as comfortable using computers. Other voters are not on the grid or can’t afford computers.

“I just had an 80-something-year-old precinct chair call me and ask me for a list of voters in his precinct so he can call to turn them out. So he is going to do it the old-fashioned way,” said John Cullar, chairman of the county Democratic Party.

However, Floyd Martin, a 66-year-old supporter of U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Lake Jackson, Texas, said he was not intimidated by the technology despite his lack of computer literacy. He’s also been using Meetup.com to organize with other Waco-area Paul backers.

“I’m just barely hanging on,” he said of his computer skills. “But it has been exciting to me, especially to see how these young kids are so good with the computers and can get so much done. From what I know about computers, I have been able to get a lot done.”

Martin said he was glad to see young and old Paul supporters coming together through online networking.

“Most of these people involved are just a little above high school kids,” he said. “I have never seen this type of variation in ages. I am involved in conservative movements and I have been all my adult life, but mostly it has been us old goats that are out there just barely able to get by physically.”

The John McCain campaign has some Web campaign features on its Web site, but it appears to have only a few members in the Waco area. The closest group of supporters of the Arizona senator on Meetup.com is based in Killeen.

The technology being used in political campaigns keeps evolving, so its effectiveness is difficult to evaluate, said Randy Kluver, a Texas A&M University professor who studies online politics.

He said the high online presence and activity of candidates such as Obama shows that demographic issues are at play, driving the candidate’s success.

“I won’t make any predictions on what it really means for the success of a campaign,” he said. “The other side of it is that I think that is incredibly easy to show support online, but will that translate into significant political power? You just don’t know.”