Slate and the Industry Standard join forces to examine the effect of the Internet on Campaign 2000.
Judging from most Web indicators, interest in the presidential campaign has not picked up from the doldrums that followed John McCain’s departure from the race. But the overlap between the Net and politics has not disappeared. We turn to the numbers once again to tell the real story.
1. Ratio of searches in the Lycos search engine during the first week in May for “Al Gore” to those for “Secretariat”: 9 to 1
2. Ratio of Lycos searches for “Pat Buchanan” to “Secretariat”: 2 to 3
3. Estimated loss in state and local sales tax revenues from the Internet tax moratorium in 1999: $525 million
4. Projected annual loss in state and local sales tax revenues from Internet tax moratorium in 2003: $20 billion
5. Hearings held by the House Judiciary Committee prior to recommending extension of Internet tax moratorium until October 2006: 0
6. Amount the George W. Bush campaign paid to Broadcast.com in February and March: $22,560
7. Number of Bush speeches available on Broadcast.com: 2
8. Amount the Al Gore campaign has paid to Broadcast.com: $0
9. Number of Gore speeches available on Broadcast.com: 3
10. Mentions of Elián González on George W. Bush’s Web site, as of May 10: 22
11. Mentions of Elián González on Al Gore’s Web site, as of May 10: 0
12. Unique visitors to Bush’s Web site, entire month of April: 172,000
13. Unique visitors to Bush’s Web site, single week ended March 4: 119,000
14. Books promoted on georgewbush.com: 1
15. Books promoted on the Ralph Nader for President Web site: 14
SOURCES
1-2 Lycos
3. Forrester Research
4. University of Tennessee study, state breakdown
5. Associated Press, May 4, 2000
6. FEC documents
7. Broadcast.com
8. Broadcast.com spokeswoman
9. Broadcast.com
10. Georgewbush.com
11. Algore2000.com
12-13 PC Data Online
14. Georgewbush.com
15. Votenader.com
