Influence of MoveOn undeniable

By Yvonne Abraham, Globe Staff, 2/16/2004

BERKELEY, Calif. -- The biggest powerhouse in progressive politics had decidedly inauspicious beginnings: an overheard conversation at a local Chinese restaurant, a high-tech chain letter, and $89.

Five years ago, tech entrepreneurs Joan Blades and her husband, Wes Boyd -- whose company gave the world the flying-toaster screen saver -- were eating lunch and listening to a group at a nearby table lamenting the time and energy wasted on the President Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal. Blades and Boyd decided to start a petition urging Congress to forgo impeachment, censure Clinton instead, and move on. They e-mailed it to their friends, asked them to pass it on, and paid $89 to set up a website where people could register their support.

Within a week, more than 100,000 people had put their names on the petition, flooring Blades and Boyd. They decided to make their new network of like-minded folks permanent. MoveOn.org was born.

Today, the organization has 1.7 million members -- as many as the Christian Coalition at its height. Its members discuss issues and set the group's priorities on the site, and MoveOn sends regular news updates. It has raised millions of dollars in small contributions from those members -- for Democratic candidates, full-page newspaper advertisements, and prime-time television spots that criticize the Bush administration.

MoveOn's Internet techniques were adopted by former governor Howard Dean of Vermont to power his formidable fund-raising machine. Dean's rivals -- and even the GOP -- are now using them in ways that are revolutionizing political activism and campaign finance.

The organization has sent thousands of volunteers to register their views in congressional offices and to work on political campaigns, and spurred its members to vehement, coordinated protests against the war in Iraq, a war that sent its membership soaring in late 2002. MoveOn.org now consists of an issue advocacy group, a political action committee, and a Voter Fund for battleground-state advertising in 2004. That advertising fund has collected $10 million in mostly small donations from MoveOn members. Billionaire philanthropist and Bush critic George Soros, with insurance magnate Peter Lewis, has committed $5 million in matching funds.

"We sent out this one-sentence petition, and that just ended up sidetracking us for far longer than we'd ever imagined," said Blades.

MoveOn is lauded by Democrats, who credit it with bringing new voters and new life to their causes. It is loathed by Republicans, who call it shadowy and hateful. And it is imitated by everyone. Its methods of raising funds and building networks -- unprecedented in American politics -- have been adopted by both major parties, the presidential candidates, and scores of other advocacy groups.

"They have innovated in ways some of us never imagined," said Michael Cornfield, research director at George Washington University's Institute for Politics, Democracy, and the Internet.

The organization is managed by a paid staff of eight, all working from their homes. Boyd and Blades, both volunteers, preside over the operation from their Berkeley house. Blades, 47, who was working on a laptop in her sun-filled dining room on a recent afternoon, is still amazed at where she and Boyd have ended up. Especially since neither of them had ever been involved in politics before that lunch.