Dean Campaign Organizes on the Web

The presidential election is still a year and a half away. But more than a hundred people crowded into a bar last week to talk about their favorite primary candidate.
SOUND 2:10 Registration table ?Fill out a name tag and get something at the bar??

But this wasn?t Manchester or a political party event. This was a college bar in downtown Boston, called Coogan?s. And this was a new political phenomenon: a ?Meet Up? event for former Vermont Governor Howard Dean. Mike Weissman, a veteran of Massachusetts gubernatorial campaign was the unofficial, self-appointed M-C.
WEISSMAN :20 I?d like to thank everyone for coming out tonight. Welcome to Meet UP. Fundamental idea here is anything anybody wants to do in Mass to move the campaign forward, just do it and run with it? I dunno how many people are in here tonight? 100 or so? 130, Whoo-hoo! Applause.

This event ? like 150 others happening on the same night ? was organized entirely online. People signed up on a website called Meetup.com. They voted on a venue, and received email reminders. Quincy resident Angus Jennings stopped by after work.
JENNINGS :11 A friend of mine emailed me, let me know there was a Meet up. I went to website saw it was real informal, just a way to meet about the campaign. So I figured I?d come a long, have a beer, learn more about Dean.

Jennings says he likes what Dean has to say about the issues he cares about. But he hasn?t committed to a primary candidate just yet. Other people, like Weissman, support Dean all the way.
WEISSMAN :20 The idea of Meet up as I understand it is to get people together once. Once that happens, it?s up to all of us on the ground to take the bull by the horns and add some cohesion to the group. It?s meet ups reason for being, to get people to come together. It?s our reason for being to use that energy and start getting things done.

Things like fundraising, advertising, and house parties. Boston physician Paul Spern says he?s new to campaigns, but he thinks Dean can unseat the Bush Administration, so he?ll do everything he can to help out.
SPERN :24 Well I?m going to hold a fundraiser at my house at the end of April and other people are going to find out about Howard dean at that fundraiser. Many of the other people here are going to help set it up. We?re all going to canvas our friends using the internet, and have a big crowd of people and get them first informed and second excited, and third generous.

Spern says the Meetup.com website gave him a reason to feel good about politics again.
SPERN :20 I?m not being pigeon holed by a guy at a fundraiser. I?m not getting a phone call from someone I don?t know who?s interrupting my dinner. I?m not watching a slick orchestrated short on TV that tells me only what I want to hear.

Campaign consultants are hailing these events as the next step in online political organizing. The Dean campaign and the Meet Up website found each other at the right moment. The chance encounter is benefiting both the campaign and the company.
Meetup.com was founded by a group of idealistic ex-dot-commers in New York City. CEO Scott Heiferman:
HEIFERMAN :20 the basic idea was how could the internet connect people locally. Face to face, real world gatherings using the Internet to get off the internet. There are people in your backyard who share that health condition, that political cause, also own Rotweilers?

The site arranges monthly meetings on all sorts of topics at cafes and bars across the country. The plan is to make money by partnering up with host venues. Groups would ?meet up? at those establishments, which would then sell more beer and coffee. Most of the topics seem to center around hobbies or interests ? Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans, I-Pod users, or breast cancer survivors can ?meet up? with others who share their interests.
HEIFERMAN :11 Frankly, I had never even heard of Howard Dean a couple months ago. Someone created the topic and it kept growing and growing.

And now, says Heiferman, more users are signed up for the Dean topic than any other topic on Meetup.com.
HEIFERMAN :11 that basic platform that we built happens to be quite a fantastic tool for political organizing and mobilizing. Really grassroots organizing on a local level.

The Howard Dean topic has grown to include more than 13-thousand Dean supporters. That?s according the statistics on the site.
ALLEN :12 you can watch the clicker. We sometimes log on and watch it turn over from 11K to 12K, we cheer and it clicks before your eyes as people log on, last time I checked it was a little over 12K people.

Dean campaign spokeswoman Sue Allen says the quick growth surprised the campaign as well. A supporter first told them about the site, and Dean?s popularity there.
ALLEN :13 it became apparent to us really quickly, that these were dedicated hardworking people, who were willing to do things for the campaign. Willing to put out info, have meetings.

The campaign website, DeanforAmerica.com, linked to the Meetup.com website. And the campaign launched an online fundraising effort aimed at these internet supporters.
ALLEN :18 It?s a very powerful tool to reach voters. They also donate, they aren?t the $2000 check writers. They give what they can give and its anything from 500-5 dollars. They?re generous and they care deeply and they?re a tool to be tapped.

And now, the campaign and the website are partners. The Dean campaign is paying Heiferman?s company to do the online organizing, but no one will say exactly how much.
HEIFERMAN :14 What they?re paying for is some ability is to help set a monthly agenda for Meet Ups. And we?re going to integrate some of Dean Meet Up site onto official dean for America website.

Most importantly, when users agree, the website shares their email addresses with the campaign. Heiferman says his company is also courting other potential partners and the rest of the presidential campaigns. The other candidates have Meet Up events too, but fewer people sign up and attend. Heiferman won?t say exactly where his own personal politics lie ? only that the company?s goal is to connect people, and he?s happy that people are meeting up and talking.
HEIFERMAN :21 I would betcha that more people are influenced by their friends. What?s happening with Howard Dean is a microcosm of where the world is going. It takes advantage of the fact that word of mouth is a whole lot more powerful than those TV ads. It?s really hard to not get energized when you?re amongst a group of people who share common interest or believe same thing.

The only thing that the Meet Up events lack is a glad-handing candidate. But last month, Howard Dean stopped by to meet his internet supporters at an event in New York City. And last week, Gary Hart showed up at a Meet Up in Los Angeles.
Now, on-the-ground political organizing energy is accessible via the internet, to people coast to coast?
SOUND Caf鬠espresso machine
Back in a Concord, New Hampshire cafe, the atmosphere at the Meet up event was more intimate than in Boston. The crowd was different too ? no college students or 20-something dot-commers. One couple drove all the way down from the North Country to drink coffee and talk about Howard Dean.
The campaign staffers enlisted 20-some-odd people. Kathy Palmer of Brookline said this is the first time she volunteered with a political campaign.
PALMER 87 I said I was going to an event that I heard about thru Meetup.com. This friend of mine said, oh, I?ve been telling you, you should try Internet dating. I had to explain that that wasn?t what it was but we got a chuckle and we looked at the website together? The Barbie doll collectors or whatever!

For NHPR News, I?m RMD.