Slate's Bizbox
net election: Tracking politics as it's practiced on the Web.

By the Numbers, Part 5These new Net figures give a unique view of candidates and their political campaigns.

By Matthew Yeomans and Bevin Cummings
Posted Monday, June 12, 2000, at 9:30 PM ET

Washington Post OnlineSlate, the Industry Standard, and washingtonpost.com join forces to examine the effect of the Internet on Campaign 2000.

In the confusing past few weeks, millionaire political neophyte Jon Corzine spent his way to success in New Jersey Democratic Senate primary, and newcomer Rick Lazio has suddenly become the one to watch in New York. Once again, the numbers provide a measure of the online political landscape.

1. Unique visitors to the GeorgeWBush Web site for the month of May: 183,000

2. Unique visitors to the Gore2000 Web site for the month of May: 89,000

3. Number of times "e-government" is mentioned on Al Gore's site: 15

4. Number of times "e-government" is mentioned on George W. Bush's site: 2

5. Cost to subscribe to FreeDem, a new ISP offered by the Democratic National Committee, aimed at bridging the digital divide: $0

6. Cost to subscribe to GOPnet.com, the ISP offered by the Republican National Committee: $19.95

7. Time it takes to sign up for FreeDem if you already have access to the Internet: Uncertain—numerous attempts at registration resulted in irritating "field error" messages

8. Time it takes to sign up for FreeDem if you don't have access to the Internet: 4 to 6 weeks

9. Percentage of photos of Rick Lazio on his Web site that show the candidate with his family: 14.3

10. Percentage of photos of Hillary Clinton on her Web site that show the candidate with her family: 0

11. Amount for which the owners of the AlBore Web site want to sell the domain name: $5,000

12. Amount the owners want for the domain name LittleGeorgeBush.com: Name to be auctioned to the highest bidder

13. Amount spent by Gore campaign in subscriptions to the Lexis/Nexis online news service in April: $17,978

14. Amount spent by Bush campaign in subscriptions to the Lexis/Nexis online news service in April: $8,527

15. Number of times "Gore campaign" appears in a Lexis/Nexis search of all U.S. news in April: 665

16. Number of times "Bush campaign" appears in a Lexis/Nexis search of all U.S. news in April: 952

17. Percentage of Americans who claim to be unaware of any news stories about presidential candidates' standings in the political opinion polls: 71

Sources:

1-2 PC Data.com

3. Algore.com

4. Georgewbush.com

5. Freedem.ibelong.com

6. GOPnet.com

7. FreeDem.com

8. Customer service at FreeDem's 1-800 order number

9. Lazio.com

10. Hillary2000.org

11. AlBore.com

12. LittleGeorgeBush.com

13. FEC documents

14. FEC documents

15-16 Lexis/Nexis

17. Vanishing Voter Project

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Matthew Yeomans has covered everything from the dot-com bust to the global oil boom. Today, he is founder of Custom Communication, providing social media strategy and branded content for companies. Bevin Cummings is an Industry Standard editorial assistant.
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