Republican and Conservative political analysis and commentary

USA Today says this year's midterm elections "offered fresh examples of the ways the Internet is changing how candidates in both parties raise money as they scramble to collect the $20, $30 and $50 donations needed in the aftermath of changes to campaign-finance laws in 2002 that banned large donations." USA Today continues:

Online fundraising has proved a cost-effective and lightning-fast method to raise cash, rally the faithful and promote or smear office seekers. It also could transform fundraising in presidential races. "It's inevitable that the Internet will become the principal means of fundraising from now on," said Anthony Corrado, a campaign-finance expert at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. "It's the only way you get a million people to each give you $10 on the same day."

The USA Today story, online here, says Democrats "have scored many of the high-profile campaign successes on the Web" but "Republicans say they are not far behind in capitalizing on the Internet's potential."

Web-based activists such as Eli Pariser, executive director of liberal MoveOn.org, says the MoveOn.org Political Action PAC raised $28 million during the 2005-06 election cycle, and $30 million during the 2004 presidential campaign. Pariser says online fundraising "has the power to completely level the playing field" in the 2008 presidential race.

Carol Darr, director of the Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet at George Washington University, said the Internet "tends to benefit the mavericks who have a compelling message" - but that online donors tend to be middle-aged, upper income and highly educated," not unlike typical large-money donors.