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Online message boards get political
(Daily Oklahoman, The (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Jun. 25--Local Democrats, Republicans host sites
When Chris Heldenbrand needed to mobilize fellow Democrats to help raise the minimum wage, there was one logical place he could go to get the word out.
OKGOPChat.com
It wasn't the state party, the newspaper or talk radio. Heldenbrand used an online message board that thousands of Oklahoma Democrats and nearly all party activists read daily.
Online message boards have increasingly become a tool for political activists in the state.
Heldenbrand is leading a group called Raise Oklahoma, which is circulating a petition to raise the state's minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $6.15 in 2007 and $7.15 in 2008.
He routinely has used the DemoOkie message board to gather support and even to find volunteers.
"It got the word out that we were organizing a petition drive and what it was for," Heldenbrand said. "Just giving the Web site link on DemoOkie, I heard from people all over the state who wanted to get involved. It was our primary distribution tool for news."
The site is run by Calvin Rees and Tim Reese. Rees started the site in 1999 after running a successful e-mail list of fellow Democrats. It has thousands of readers, including many state officials.
The owners of DemoOkie see their site as a news source. They have broken stories on their site that eventually were picked up by traditional media.
"We have some important people either directly posting or posting through us," Reese said. "And they do it because they have confidence that we won't reveal our source."
Republicans got their own board a few years ago after Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Warr Acres, and his former campaign manager, Kyle Loveless, began talking.
"We realized that there really wasn't an information network for activists," Loveless said. "If I'm in Poteau and something's going on in Tulsa, I don't really know what's going on."
Loveless started OKGopChat with that idea in mind. Although not as popular as the DemoOkie board, Loveless' site is read by many in the party and has attracted the attention of Republican candidates. Staffers for at least two of the candidates vying to replace Istook as the state's 5th District representative post regularly on the site.
Sean McCaffrey, campaign manager for GOP congressional candidate Mick Cornett, introduced himself on the site shortly after joining the Oklahoma City mayor's congressional campaign staff May 31.
"The people that are on there seem to be your more activist conservative party types," McCaffrey said. "It's the folks that are more likely to be talking politics at the lunch counter, on their drive to work with their friends or maybe even at the dinner table with their families."
Ron Black, a former radio host working as a consultant for Denise Bode's congressional campaign, has posted on the site for years.
Black said he sees the board as pure entertainment.
"It's a great source of comedy," Black said.
Keith Gaddie, a University of Oklahoma political science professor and occasional poster on both DemoOkie and OKGopChat, said most political candidates are paying at least some attention to the boards.
"Most people have an intern who monitors the board," Gaddie said. "You are truth-checking against attacks on your candidate. It's not that important, but it is public, and it is out there."
Black said the dialogue on OKGopChat is not at the same level as DemoOkie, which he also reads.
"The Republican Party has gotten to a place where we are willing to eat our own wounded, and the boards are definitely the place where that carnage begins," Black said. "The majority of the people who post on the DemoOkie site really want to help the party as opposed to wanting to help little cults of personality."
Loveless has struggled with whether to allow people to post on the site anonymously. He's occasionally received calls from elected officials complaining about personal attacks made by anonymous posters.
"I think there is some value in people not posting under their own name," Loveless said. "But if you are going to post anonymously, you are going to have to do it in a responsible manner."
Loveless and the partners who run DemoOkie retain the right to ban those who cross the line, though they try to let the boards regulate themselves as much as possible.
"Most of the questionable stuff is challenged," Heldenbrand said. "A lot of it is debunked along the way. I think that's healthy."
Those who run the boards said they rely on those who post nearly every day and monitor the boards closely. Loveless said he's given a few of those he trusts the power to moderate the boards. They can take down posts that cross the line or may be libelous.
Gaddie said the culture of the boards makes even anonymous posters somewhat accountable. And the real identities of some anonymous posters are known by those who run the boards.
"You develop street credibility for the information you put up there even though you are anonymous," Gaddie said.
Most agree the use of message boards is only going to increase in the coming years, meaning candidates are going to have to consider them in their campaign strategies.
Gaddie said anonymous political commentary is nothing new in American politics. He pointed to Ben Franklin, who as a teen wrote anonymously in a newspaper published by his brother more than 280 years ago.
"There is an ancient American tradition of this," Gaddie said. "Certainly these chat boards are not the Federalist Papers. In a way a chat board is a lot like a bar. You will have intensive and insightful conversations. And occasionally you will just have bar fights."
Visit NewsOK.com to read the online message boards.
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