Raising Presidential Campaign Cash Takes E-mail Form in June
Monday, July 16, 2007
By: Kate Kaye, ClickZ
E-mail may seem like a banal campaign tool these days, but the top presidential candidate campaigns are using it in novel and diverse ways. From hard-sell to soft-sell, down-to-earth to hardcore insider talk, the big campaigns used the e-mail platform in June to promote events, tout polling success, show off whistle-stop campaign photos, and more. But as the days led to the Federal Election Committee's second quarter fundraising disclosure deadline of June 30, the campaigns all had one thing on their minds: raising cash.
According to information gathered from e-mail tracking firm Email Data Source, all candidates ranked highly in primary campaign polls -- Democrats Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Barack Obama and Republicans Rudy Giuliani, John McCain and Mitt Romney -- sent around 10 e-mail messages each to campaign registrants from early June through early July. The exception was frequent e-mailer John Edwards, whose campaign sent 25 e-mails, some of which were targeted to residents of particular geographical regions. In May and early June, the Edwards camp sent the most e-mail messages, 17, compared with the same bunch of rivals.
Romney and Giuliani used the all-American sport of baseball to get the word out and drum up campaign dollars, Giuliani promoting New York ballpark canvassing and Romney a fundraising event at the home field of the Boston Red Sox. The two Republican presidential hopefuls also both sent messages to members of the e-mail list for conservative publication Human Events.
Meanwhile, McCain's campaign buffered fundraising pleas with dense campaign updates, notes on press coverage, and shots of the Arizona Senator fishing.
Democratic candidates Obama and Edwards promoted grassroots events such as dinners, house get-togethers and l ow-cover-price parties. Hillary Clinton's campaign employed tough anti-Republican messages, notes on hot issues like healthcare and the War in Iraq, and even promoted a user-generated video effort, all in the hopes of scoring last-minute campaign money.
By Kate Kaye, ClickZ