Chatalas Shrugged

The aftermath of the 2004 elections was painful for democrats. Not only did they fail to unseat an unpopular president, but both houses of congress remained in republican hands. One group in particular faced some soul searching: the liberal blogosphere, the network of online activists using technology to activate the progressive base. Among the left there was optimism that the country would change its course, and bloggers felt their brand of digital activism was a new paradigm for winning political campaigns. Yet in the end the democrats, and bloggers, came up short.

Despite the setbacks, these bloggers, also known as the netroots, were undeterred and continued to move forth with their style of online organizing. At the same time, liberal activists were growing restless with the reluctance of democrats in congress to challenge the Bush administration on the war and other issues. One target of this enmity was Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, whose support of Bush initiatives was clearly at odds with the increasingly vocal progressives. Symbolic of Lieberman’s rightward tilt was the senator’s kiss of President Bush at the 2005 State of the Union address. Progressives, encouraged by bloggers, vowed to challenge Lieberman, and set out to find a candidate to challenge him in the 2006 Connecticut Democratic Party primary.

The article Bloggers at the Gates: Ned Lamont, Blogs, and the Rise of Insurgent Candidates (Social Science Computer Review, August, 2008), examines this primary campaign and the role of the liberal blogs in making it a competitive race. The author, Kevin A. Perch, delves into the traditional role of political parties and posits that the blogs became a virtual political party for challenger Ned Lamont in his bid to unseat the incumbent.

Political parties have typically served three primary functions: uniting those with similar political views; finding and promoting candidates that represent the party views; and providing campaign support, including fund-raising. Both the Democratic and Republican parties have used these basics to consolidate considerable power, and maintain a veritable two-party system in the United States. Rarely does a third party candidate stand a chance to get elected, relegated instead to that of spoiler as shown by Ross Perot’s Independent run in the presidential elections of the 1990s, and Ralph Nader as a Green Party candidate in 2000.

When Ned Lamont entered the race against Lieberman he faced the power of the political party apparatus. Lieberman was a popular two-term Senator, and had also been Al Gore’s running mate in 2000. The state Democratic Party was loath to embrace a challenge to a sitting Senator. So instead, Lamont became a candidate of the netroots, which despite the 2004 losses were nonetheless a growing force in progressive politics via their innovative use of technology.

Bloggers Take on the Role of a Political Party
Although the progressive blogs would seem to be a supporting element of the Democratic Party and its agenda, such was not the case in the Lamont-Lieberman primary race. And Perch is dead-on that the bloggers had also become a de facto political party. Let’s take a look at how those traditional party functions were served by the blogs.

First, political blogs by their nature have brought together those with similar viewpoints. These online communities have audiences that share political ideology. In the case of Lieberman, both national and local blogs railed against his support of Bush and republicans on such issues as the Iraq war, warrant-less wiretapping, and social security privatization. The feeling was that even though Lieberman was a democrat in name, his actions on the floor of the senate were not aligned with democratic ideals. But what helped arouse dismay with Lieberman was his kiss of President Bush at the 2005 State of the Union address; the blogs harped on this embrace, discussed it regularly, and made certain video of it was widely circulated.

From there, as large segments of the progressive community were in agreement that there needed to be a challenge to Lieberman, the blogosphere took on the duty of recruiting and promoting a suitable candidate. As Perch describes, bloggers became a virtual nominating committee, vetting some of the prospective candidates. One politician under consideration was former Connecticut governor Lowell Weicker, an independent (and former republican) who had a history of tension with Lieberman; he didn’t gather much support from the bloggers who didn’t think Weicker was sufficiently progressive. Eventually they rallied around Lamont. A successful and respected businessman, Lamont was an outspoken critic of the war. His personal wealth (he was also the grandson of a former chairman of JP Morgan) and his reputation as a business-friendly moderate made him an attractive candidate for such an intra-party primary scuffle.

Once Lamont was on board, the blogosphere helped serve the functions of logistical and financial support. Among the efforts undertaken by the netroots on his behalf were communication and organizing. But most important was the fundraising. Perch details the online donations garnered by Lamont. “In the first 45 days of his campaign, Lamont raised $350,000 from more than 4,500 online contributors,” and a consortium of bloggers helped Lamont raise almost $500,000 from more than 8,000 donors. He eventually raised $3.5 million to augment his personal contributions.

This influx of money, and the statewide and national network, helped Lamont knock off Lieberman in the Democratic primary, with 52 percent of the vote. Lieberman subsequently filed as an Independent for November’s general election. This move paid off for Lieberman as he eventually held onto the senate seat. The incumbent won with nearly 50 percent of the statewide vote, while Lamont received 40 percent, and republican Alan Schlesinger 9 percent.

Lieberman returned to DC, and vowed to still caucus with the democrats. However, his positions and votes have trended ever-more rightward, and criticism of him from the progressive base has grown even more heated than in 2006. Lieberman is up for election in 2010, and will surely face another strong challenge.

Discussion Points

Lamont’s 2006 bid to unseat a popular sitting senator leads to some further discussion points that are relevant to current-day campaigns.

Bloggers were instrumental in Lamont’s rise and primary victory, but he nonetheless lost the general election. Might this indicate a weakness of the liberal blogosphere to actually deliver a victory? While the netroots have been successful at energizing the base, they have tended to be insular, thus attracting those who already share these general views rather than reaching a new audience. A 2005 study, The Political Blogosphere and the 2004 US Election, Divide They Blog (Adamic and Glance, 2005), analyzed the linking patterns of liberal and conservative blogs in the two months prior to the 2004 election. They found there was a lack of overlap in the links; both sides link to those blogs that support their views. This leads to the conclusion that the liberal online community merely frequents sites that reinforce and agree with already established viewpoints.

At the same time, though, it must be noted that the democrats took back congress in 2006, and progressive blogs were considered crucial to this success in terms of the organizational and fundraising functions detailed earlier. And the bloggers were certainly onto something in their support of Lamont’s challenge: a July 2008 poll of Connecticut voters showed that if the vote were held again, Lamont would win 51 percent of the vote to 36 percent for Lieberman.

Another trend that has continued is the push for intra-party challenges. Bloggers follow the performances of elected officials, and if they deem that an incumbent is failing to uphold progressive ideals they have actively moved to correct that. Once again, on its own terms the blogosphere is fulfilling the role of a virtual party, even if it is contrary to a local party organization.

Online fundraising remains among the greatest assets of the digital campaigns. Every year the growing sophistication and reach of these efforts results in record-breaking numbers in both dollars and contributors. From McCain (2000) to Dean (2004) to Paul and Obama (2008), the amounts are staggering. The blogosphere has fully utilized these tools, and taken advantage of its long reach to help provide enormous financial help to candidates. One example is the “Orange to Blue” campaign sponsored by Daily Kos.

And just last Friday, Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachman appeared on MSNBC and said that Obama and other liberal members of congress are anti-American. This clip has been bandied about the blogs, and her challenger has raised nearly a million dollars online in four days.

Lastly, one of the powerful symbols of the Lamont challenge was the Lieberman/Bush kiss, and its use in the campaign. We’re seeing a similar image regularly being used in the 2008 presidential campaign: McCain hugging Bush.