But only ballots cast in November 2006 will count for Ashdown's long-odds challenge to Utah's Republican senior senator. And how will the first-time Democratic candidate counter the millions of dollars Hatch can raise in a predominantly GOP state?
Ashdown's answer? He can't. Instead, the founder of Xmission, Utah's longest-running Internet service provider, will rely on what he knows best to spread his message: the tools of cyberspace.
"Traditionally, money generates momentum, but sadly momentum also generates money," Ashdown says. "I realized early on that the traditional recipe was not going to win this election."
Certainly, Hatch is no stranger to the Internet, having long had a Web site (http://www.orrin2006 .com) and more recently a blog, or Web log, linked to his home page. Hatch's entries stress his knowledge of Capitol Hill; Ashdown's blog (linked from his Web site at http://www.pashdown.org) bunches issues with more personal entries about wife Robin giving birth to his daughter, or a visit to the Davis County Fair.
But Ashdown goes further. In addition to hosting a monthly live chat session (irc.xmission.com, channel # "pashdown"), the self-described geek-turned-politico probably is among the first, if not the innovator of literally opening his platform to all comers.
Connecting with voters: Observers say Ashdown's "Campaign Collaboration" site (http:// peteashdown.org/wiki) is either bizarre or ingenuous. The site is based on the "Wiki" open-source model made famous by Wikipedia, the living digital encyclopedia open to contributions and editing by all.
"This is where you have the power to influence my campaign for U.S. Senate. You can help work on policy, strategize in an open forum, or simply see what needs to be done," Ashdown notes in his invitation to political partnership.
His list of open campaign issues is long, ranging from election financing, the economy and education to health care, immigration, the Iraq war and taxation to technology and even aspects of Ashdown's coming campaign strategy.
For example, the entry on Iraq had been accessed nearly 300 times and tweaked several times as of this past week. The most important addition to the statement, in which Ashdown initially says he opposed the invasion but supports the troops, is an expansion on the theme of finishing the work of restoring peace.
That plank of Ashdown's campaign platform remains open. Eventually, he says, revised versions of it and others will be adopted officially.
"I am absolutely serious about this. For the first time, the Internet and technology present the opportunity for the people to be actively engaged in government. What better way to demonstrate that than in my own campaign?" he says.
Hatch strategy: Hatch campaign manager Dave Hansen says he admires "anyone who's willing to take chances and try new things. . . . Usually, though, a person gets into the race knowing what he stands for, and the voting public either accepts it or rejects it.
"We're using the Internet, too, but we won't throw out the tried-and-true methods of campaigning just because something new pops up."
Indeed, Wiki-based sites of all kinds are vulnerable. Although the ideal relies on an honor system when inviting contributions, in the fast-moving world of political media a computer-savvy, "dirty tricks" operative could cause a lot of damage to a campaign in the interval between a bogus posting and a correction or deletion.
Ashdown knows the risk, but insists "there are more people who want to see this succeed than malcontents who want to tear it down.
"It should also be noted that the [Wiki] software is tuned to deal with abuse. With one click I can remove all the vandalism . . . from a single origin."
Even so, vigilance will be at a premium for any such endeavor, says Pamela Jones, whose legal research site Groklaw (http:// www.groklaw.net) is seen as a groundbreaking, Wiki-like experiment in the open source/free software community.
"Like everything on the Internet, and in life, the value of a project depends on the sincerity and honesty and simple honor of those involved," she said.
Jones has seen that any Wiki site is open to malevolent visitors who "try to influence the honest and sincere folks who use the [site] by posting slanted, biased or sometimes just annoying material. . . . The administrators of the site [must be] alert and creative [to] identify issues like that and expose them."
bmims@sltrib.com
