PROVIDENCE -- With a click of her computer mouse, Lowry Marshall, who teaches acting at Brown University, is helping change the way U.S. presidential campaigns are waged.
Every time Howard Dean says something she agrees with -- such as being critical of President Bush's Iraq policies -- Marshall sends a contribution to Dean over the Internet.
"I send him $25 just about every time he says something I like," says Lowry, one of about 25 Dean supporters who meet once a month at a Providence tavern to help plan the former Vermont governor's Rhode Island campaign.
In computers across the country is the key to the early success of Dean's campaign, which has used the power of the Internet to raise money and recruit supporters like no other in U.S. history.
The most startling aspect of the Dean Internet juggernaut is the huge amount of money he has raised in $25 and $50 increments from the credit and debit cards of ordinary voters.
"Dean has in many ways revolutionized presidential campaign fundraising by showing if you can harness the power of the Internet, you can raise enough money to be a viable candidate," says Anthony Corrado, a Colby College government professor who is an expert on presidential campaign financing.
Campaign aides and political professionals predict that when the results are in on the reporting period that ends Sept. 30, Dean will lead the 10-candidate Democratic field in money.
Dean raised $7.6 million in the period that ended June 30. By contrast, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry finished second with $5.9 million and Sen. Joeph Lieberman finished third with $5.1 million.
Dean's campaign is predicting that it will harvest at least $10.3 million when the totals are announced Sept. 30, which will break the three-month record for a Democratic presidential campaign set by former President Bill Clinton during his 1996 reelection. There are whispers from Dean's Burlington, Vt., headquarters of topping $15 million.
But Dean's Internet surge is about much more than money. It is a campaign that has relied on the Internet to wed traditional political tactics -- building an organization of supporters -- with a new technology that young people, especially, are familiar with.
In the short term, cyberspace has allowed Dean to bring his campaign to people outside the traditional Democratic Party core of organized labor, minority voters and elected officials.
"This may be the first 21st-century campaign," says Philip Noble, founder of politicsonline.com, which sells political software. "Howard Dean began his campaign with the Internet as a core principle, and that has made all the difference in the world. . . . It's Napster meets politics."
Says Garrett Graff, a Dean campaign aide, "People have said that we are doing for politics what Amazon.com has done in business."
Other candidates have relied on the Internet -- most notably Arizona Sen. John McCain's 2000 presidential campaign -- but none so effectively and in so many different ways as Dean, a medical doctor who was Vermont's governor for 11 years.
Older voters may recognize an analogy between Dean and the last New Englander elected president -- John F. Kennedy in 1960. Kennedy defeated Republican Richard M. Nixon largely because his campaign understood how to capture television, the new communications technology of its time.
"The Internet now is the preferred medium of the rising generation," says Noble.
Walking to a labor-union lunch in Concord, N.H., in March, Dean predicted the Internet would help his campaign soar.
"My generation changed America by marching in the streets," he said. "Young people today are making change sitting behind a keyboard organizing America."
Other campaigns are racing to catch up. "It is clear they [Dean] took advantage of an early organization, but the Kerry campaign has an online presence that is growing by the day," says Kelley Benander, spokeswoman for Kerry, another Democratic presidential aspirant.
Retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark has just announced his candidacy, but the Internet has already played a role in organizing his supporters. Brett Davey, a Providence hospital public-relations executive, says that 20 Clark volunteers who met last week at a Pawtucket restaurant meet via the Internet.
DEAN'S INTERNET lure was apparent Tuesday night at Patrick's Pub, a neighborhood bar within a bumper sticker's throw of the State House on Smith Hill.
Twenty-five supporters -- many drawn by the Rifordean.org Web site -- attended a campaign meeting. In a show of hands, 18 of the 25 indicated they had never been involved in a political campaign before. There were no Rhode Island elected officials or leaders of organized labor.
"I'm the only hack here," joked Bob Oliveira of Newport, fingering a long cigar that other Dean supporters pleaded with him not to light. (He didn't.) Oliveira has worked on several state campaigns, including former Lt. Gov. Richard Licht's ill-fated 2000 race for U.S. Senate.
The Dean group talked about several campaign activities, including participating in a beach cleanup, handing out Dean pamphlets at WaterFire, and holding up big blue Dean signs during today's morning rush hour at the Gano Street pedestrian overpass on Route 195.
"Hey, we even made it on the radio traffic reports last week," said Lance Burkoff of Easton, Mass. As is the case with many other Dean volunteers, Burkoff believes in Dean's strong opposition to the Iraq war and his push to make Vermont the only state in the United States to allow "civil unions," granting the rights of marriage to gay couples.
To a degree unusual in presidential campaigns, Dean has allowed local organizations to do their own thing, with minimal interference from campaign headquarters.
"This is a permission-free campaign," says Zephyr Teachout, who heads online organizing for Dean. "We want local groups to speak in their own voices."
The national campaign does issue fundraising and campaign event challenges. For example, Teachout says more than 360 Dean events are scheduled nationwide tomorrow where volunteers will hold Dean signs at visible places or get his name out to the public in other ways.
As the fundraising deadline of Sept. 30 nears, Dean groups around the country will hold house parties to raise campaign money. The campaign Web site posts money totals and challenges supporters to give more.
The fundraising site acts as an Internet telethon. Over four days in late July, Dean's campaign collected more than half a million dollars -- in average donations of $53 -- outpacing the $300,000 collected by Vice President Dick Cheney at a $2,000-a-plate fundraiser during that time.
Raising money online is much cheaper than the more traditional route of direct mail, which carries big postage costs.
"All you need online is a $5,000 server and a geek to run it," says Noble. "The one-millionth e-mail costs just about what the first one does -- it is incredibly cheap."
Dean's was the first political site to post a frequently updated Web journal, called a blog, that lets visitors provide the campaign with feedback. The DeanforAmerica.com site is user-friendly; punch in your ZIP code and the site spits out any Dean campaign events occuring within 100 miles.
Dean's national Web site has so far received 400,000 hits; the Rhode Island site, 21,000.
There is the Doonesbury cartoon stereotype about Dean supporters -- that they are all white, liberal, tech-savvy, young and well-educated. It bothers some of Dean's minority supporters.
"I'd like to see more people who look like me, more people of color get involved in this campaign," says Kyle Potter, of Providence, the only black person at Tuesday's Dean meeting in Providence.
"There is a digital divide in this country, and we have to be honest about it," said Potter, referring to the fact that more whites than blacks have Internet connections in their homes. "We need to do more to attract minorities to Dean."
DEAN HIMSELF argues strenuously that his campaign's success is about much more than cyberspace -- a point on which other political professionals agree. Dean used his anti-Iraq war stance and tough talk against President Bush's economic policies to grab the attention of liberals and young people.
"The Internet is a great tool, but it is not a great tool unless you have something to say," Dean said in an interview last month after a fundraiser in Middletown. "The reason the Internet has been so successful for us is that we have a different message from most Democrats.
"The Internet is not just a tool which we are using well; the other guys are trying to duplicate that now, as you've seen on the Web, and it hasn't happened," said Dean.
"The Internet is also a community. The key thing about using the Internet is that people get to talk to you. It's not just about me talking to them," said Dean.
"We actually read the stuff people send us and we think about our positions," he said.
DIGITAL EXTRA: Browse a collection of profiles of presidential candidates, campaign photos and related campaign Web sites, at:
http://projo.com/extra/2003/candidates/
