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Democratic rivals in race to recruit bloggers

United States presidential contenders including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are heading to Chicago for the biggest gathering of leftwing and anti-war bloggers, in a move that highlights the increasing importance of online activists in American politics. All eight Democratic contenders will be present for the second YearlyKos convention, which opened on Thursday in contrast with last year when only Bill Richardson turned up.

The candidates will take part in a debate on Saturday and hold one-to-one meetings with the bloggers, in the hope that their campaigns can harness the online commentators’ networks, enthusiasm and fundraising capabilities.

Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, 35, is a U.S. army veteran who founded a leading liberal website, DailyKos — after his army nickname — in 2002. He said the bloggers’ influence had increased over the last year, partly because of their role in November’s Congressional elections. “I think we went from being a novelty following 2004 [when Howard Dean surged in the Democratic race helped by online fundraising] to a group who delivered results,” he said. “This is a brand new progressive movement, where most of the party’s new-found energy is coming from.”

The shift from the traditional campaign route to the Internet was underlined last week when all the Democratic contenders shunned the Democratic Leadership Council meeting in Tennessee. The meeting has been a staging post for Democratic candidates from Walter Mondale in 1984 to Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996.

Professor Darrell West, who specialises in politics and the mass media at Brown University, said: “I think television is still important but bloggers have gained tremendous influence over the last few years and are beginning to compete with the old media. The bloggers have great importance. They can send information instantaneously. They provide a form of accountability in the political system. The bloggers helped mobilise grassroots sentiments against Bush.”

About 1,400 people have registered for the convention, including trade union leaders. In keeping with the spirit of the Internet, the event was organised by a staff of just one-and-a-half, helped by dozens of volunteers. Two hundred journalists have signed up to attend.

All the Democratic contenders have Internet specialists on their teams. John Edwards, who is in the third place behind Ms. Clinton and Mr. Obama, employs Joe Trippi, a Democratic campaign veteran who worked for Mr. Dean. Under him, what was a traditional campaign has become web-driven in an attempt to break the dominance of Ms. Clinton and Mr. Obama on television and in print.

While Democrats have wholly embraced the Internet, the Republicans have so far been tentative, sticking mainly to the routes that have worked best for them in the past, such as radio.

The YearlyKos organiser, Gina Cooper, 37, a former teacher, attributes the divergence between the Democrats and Republicans to their different cultures, with the Republicans preferring the status quo, and the Democrats willing to change.

Rightwingers have criticised the candidates for taking part in the conference. Bill Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard, said their attendance was a sign that they had “gone left,” while Bill O’Reilly, host of a programme on Fox News, described DailyKos as “one of the worst examples of hatred America has to offer,” comparable to the Ku Klux Klan and the Nazi party.

Mr. Moulitsas shrugged off the criticism: “I think they realise we are a force to be reckoned with. They would not be talking about us if they did not see us as a threat.” —

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