(2008-12-02) The Fate Of Obamas Net Roots Network

Peter Overby: The Fate Of Obama's Net Roots Network. Just two weeks after the historic election, Barack Obama campaign officials sent an e-mail to roughly 10 million "Obamamaniacs" and volunteers who had registered with the campaign online, asking them what the president-elect should tackle in the months ahead.... from campaign manager David Plouffe.

it asks for actual input. How would you like to remain involved? By helping President Obama pass legislation? By electing local candidates who share the same vision? What issues matter to you?

Commentators and bloggers have called this unprecedented and perhaps a foreshadowing of the way a Web-savvy White House could communicate with the public.

The organization has two crown jewels. One is a database with 13 million e-mail addresses. While some of them are bogus or came from nonsupporters (such as journalists covering the campaign), probably 10 million or more came from supporters — those who helped build the campaign's historic war chest, who organized in counties and precincts, or who simply attended a rally or bought a T-shirt. The other jewel is the "net roots" style network that turned out voters for Obama in the primaries and that helped him carry traditionally Republican states in November.

Rosenberg says Obama could do what other presidents have traditionally done: turn over his lists of supporters to the national party committee. But people joined the Obama campaign for all sorts of reasons. Some unknown percentage of them want to remain politically active, but not as Democrats.

So a second alternative is to take the list into the White House. Then the president could ask supporters to pressure Congress on important bills, a strategy that most likely wouldn't benefit the administration in its relations with lawmakers. There's also an ownership question. Legally, the database belongs to the president-elect and his campaign. Using it in the White House would very likely make it government property.

As a third alternative, Obama could keep his campaign committee going, something no president has ever done. Or he could create a new political action committee. That's never happened before, either; in the closest comparison, Ronald Reagan turned over his grass-roots organization to a new PAC in 1976 after losing his first presidential bid.

Alternative No. 4 would be a tax-exempt entity, using the database to promote Obama's issues. Once again, though, no president has ever done such a thing. And the tax code sets too many limits to make it a comfortable option.

"Anyone who imagines that all power is in who controls the lists misunderstands that we are no longer in the age of lists, we are in the age of networks," says Micah Sifry, executive editor of the Web site www.PersonalDemocracyForum.com.