In many ways, raising funds on the Internet is not a big change in how Parties and candidates have done it in the past. Websites are the cyber-equivalent of the campaign storefront headquarters that dot main streets of thousands of cities and towns across the country. Likewise, the traditional fundraising letter easily translates in what will soon be the traditional fundraising e-mail. Bulk e-mail is cheap to send, reaches across the entire political spectrum, and offers interactive qualities regular mail could never provide such as links to related websites, interactive polls, and, of course, the ability to respond almost instantly to the sender of the message. Town meetings and debates no longer have to occur in a stuffy VFW meeting hall.
Candidates can now hold forth via chat room.
Two candidates for Maine's state senate recently held an on-line debate with a local reporter serving as a moderator, and the debate was a hit. Another traditional tool making the transition to the Internet is political polling. No longer do pollsters have to telephone hundreds of households to read questions and record the responses, then compile the results. On-line polling is every pollster's dream. It not only yields instant results from a carefully selected audience, but it also uses built-in programs that can break down responses by sex, race, age bracket, income level, and a dozens of other variables.