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Google plays for the long term and they’re smart to be there,” said Phil Noble, founder of PoliticsOnline, a site that provides Internet tools and strategies for campaigns. “The Internet and politics is a revolution, and Google and these guys are not going to lead the revolution, but they don’t want to get shot in the back either.”

The amount spent on all political races in 2004 — about $4 billion — is expected to more than double in 2008. And just as many major companies are doing, political campaigns are expected to shift more of their ad dollars to the Web.Google wants to be ready when that happens.  full article…

From Wired, March 2007 - an article describing the potential of using the Internet for annonymity for large donors who want to heavily influence a campaign:

The video’s success has fired up a new round of debate about the impact of federal regulators’ decision a year ago to exclude unpaid online political activity from the detailed disclosure requirements that apply to political advertising in traditional media…

“The hot issue is whether the (Federal Election Commission) made the right call when it exempted from the disclaimer rules all internet activity except for paid internet ads,” says Scott Thomas, a former chairman of the FEC who is now an attorney at the law firm of Dickstein Shapiro in Washington, D.C.

But some longtime politicos worried that the ruling would carve open a loophole through which large donors could fund stealth guerrilla campaigns to deceptively influence people…

“Think ahead to what ad agencies, with checks from Republican political donors, would produce against Hillary, Obama or (John) Edwards in the general election.”

Former FEC chairman Thomas said it’s unlikely that the FEC would revisit the issue anytime soon unless news breaks about rampant abuse of the loophole. And after fighting to bring some level of transparency last year and being ignored, some pundits have simply thrown up their hands.  Full Article…

From an article in the New York Times, April 2006:

“Democrats and Republicans are sharply increasing their use of e-mail, interactive Web sites, candidate and party blogs, and text-messaging to raise money, organize get-out-the-vote efforts and assemble crowds for a rallies. The Internet, they said, appears to be far more efficient, and less costly, than the traditional tools of politics, notably door knocking and telephone banks.

Analysts say the campaign television advertisement, already diminishing in influence with the proliferation of cable stations, faces new challenges as campaigns experiment with technology that allows direct messaging to more specific audiences, and through unconventional means.”

“‘The effect of the Internet on politics will be every bit as transformational as television was,’ said Ken Mehlman, the Republican national chairman. ‘If you want to get your message out, the old way of paying someone to make a TV ad is insufficient: You need your message out through the Internet, through e-mail, through talk radio.’

Michael Cornfield, a political science professor at George Washington University who studies politics and the Internet, said campaigns were actually late in coming to the game. ‘Politicians are having a hard time reconciling themselves to a medium where they can’t control the message,’ Professor Cornfield said. ‘Politics is lagging, but politics is not going to be immune to the digital revolution.’”  full article…

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=198100304 

Sending yet another signal that the Internet-based social networks are a notable battlefield for the next presidency, MySpace launched a new section this week featuring candidates for the 2008 presidential election.  read more