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MoveOn

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MoveOn
Formation1998
Membership
3.3 million
Website
http://www.moveon.org

MoveOn is a left wing public policy organization that has raised millions of dollars for Democratic Party candidates in the United States. It was formed in response to the impeachment of President Clinton.

A group of MoveOn volunteers helped the get-out-the-vote drive in Cincinnati in the run-up to the 2004 U.S. presidential election.

MoveOn comprises two legal entities, each organized under a different section of U.S. tax and election laws:

MoveOn.org Civic Action, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization, formerly known just as MoveOn.org, primarily focuses on education and advocacy on important national issues.

MoveOn.org Political Action, a federal PAC, formerly known as MoveOn PAC, mobilizes people across the country to fight important battles in Congress and help elect progressive candidates.

History

Main article: History of MoveOn.org

MoveOn started in 1998 as a bipartisan email group. It petitioned the United States Congress to "move on" past the ongoing impeachment proceedings of President Bill Clinton.

After the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001, the founders of MoveOn started a petition against a military response. Eventually, this led to them working on behalf of Eli Pariser's similar 9-11peace.org petition. Pariser later joined MoveOn and serves as its executive director today.

MoveOn later publicly condemned the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Since then, it has supported John Kerry, the Democratic nominee for the 2004 U.S. presidential election [5] and raised millions of dollars for many Democratic candidates.

MoveOn has created pressure within the Democratic Party for what the Washington Post calls "a vigorously liberal agenda" that goes "beyond simple opposition to the Bush administration." MoveOn founder Wes Boyd rejects the advice of "centrists" such as the Democratic Leadership Council who argue that "Democrats must moderate their positions on war, taxes, universal health care and other key issues." Speaking in June 2003 at a "Take Back America" conference, Boyd declared, "The primary way to build trust is to consistently fight for things that people care about." Grassroots America is ready to support a liberal agenda, he said, if only "someone will get out and lead. ... Every time we did something, every time we showed leadership, our membership went up." [6]

MoveOn.org was created by computer entrepreneurs Joan Blades and Wes Boyd, the married cofounders of Berkeley Systems. They started by passing around a petition asking Congress to "censure President Clinton and move on", as opposed to impeaching him. To the couple's surprise, the petition, passed around by word of mouth, was extremely successful -- ultimately, they had half a million signatures. Buoyed by their success, the couple went on to start similar campaigns, calling for more arms inspections rather than an invasion of Iraq (see Popular opposition to war on Iraq); the reinstatement of lower limits on arsenic and mercury pollution, and campaign finance reform.

Organizing methodology

The powerful thing about MoveOn is that it is not a one-way broadcast media. The Internet, when used best, is a two-way media.

— Joan Blades, MoveOn founder. [7]

They're the leading edge. They've combined the reach and the cost-effectiveness of the Internet with real live, on-the-street and in-the-office, face-to-face volunteerism.

— Michael Kieschnick, president of Working Assets [8]

MoveOn uses e-mail as its main conduit for communicating with members, sending action alerts at least once a week. According to Joan Neils, a graduate student at the University of Washington who has conducted a study of MoveOn, one of the keys to its effectiveness has been its status as a "trusted, credible entity". It achieves this status through a variety of strategies:

First of all, people who read a MoveOn e-mail or visit the site generally do so after receiving the message or link from someone they trust. ... This is because almost every e-mail MoveOn sends encourages recipients to forward it on to others who share an interest in the topic. This is how they build their membership and it provides a foundation of trust among the recruited. ...Every e-mail includes the opportunity for a recipient to unsubscribe from the list. This is in stark contrast to commercial e-mails and spam, which often (and irritatingly) exclude this minor but important option.

— Joan Neils

MoveOn also respects the privacy of its members and doesn't sell or share individuals' information with other groups. Finally, Neils writes, "Most fundamental to credibility is MoveOn's legitimacy through validation. All of the supporting information MoveOn provides via e-mail and the Web is easily validated. For instance, e-mails always cite sources at the bottom, most often complete with links directly to the source."[9]

File:MoveOnBillboard.jpg
A MoveOn billboard opposing the war in Iraq.

The MoveOn website also uses multi-media, including videos, audio downloads and images. In addition to communicating via the Internet, MoveOn advertises using traditional print and broadcast media as well as billboards, bus signs and bumper stickers, digital versions of which are downloadable from its website. "MoveOn also uses the Web effectively for two-way communications," observes Neils. "One of the most interactive elements of the MoveOn.org site, and one that demonstrates the group’s non-hierarchical organization is the Action Forum. The Action Forum is much like a blog, in which members write in issues they think are important and suggest strategies for action. Members then vote on submissions and the highest ranked issues rise to the top, thereby establishing MoveOn’s priorities. It’s an incredibly fluid, bottom-up approach to decision-making, allowing MoveOn to adapt and change as they go." [10]

"The site is organized in ways traditional political consultants might not stomach," reported CNN in January 2004. "Any member can propose priorities and strategies to which others can respond, and the most-supported ideas rise to the top. That means ceding control over much of the content to motivated online participants, producing interactivity that adds grassroots credibility."[1]

"We are steeped in feedback," says MoveOn founder Wes Boyd. [11] The group's success, he argues, has stemmed from its ability to listen to supporters and develop campaigns that reflect their interests. "That doesn't mean you can't have a vision. Our model is 'Strong Vision, Big Ears,'" he said at the O'Reilly Network's 2004 Digital Democracy Teach-in. "Every time we did something that really engaged people the membership soared." [12]

"Part of MoveOn's attraction is that it aims for normal people, not just activists, and engages them successfully," says MoveOn organizer Eli Pariser. "The efforts fund themselves ... we're just trying to keep up. We ask for a specific amount of money and much more pours in." [13]

Some analysts see MoveOn as primarily a vehicle for mobilizing citizens who already share its left-leaning political views. According to Neils, however, "the group’s largest potential for influencing politics is not necessarily through changing the positions, attitudes or behaviors of their primary audience. Instead, their efforts may be more substantially realized through reaching undecideds in an indirect way, via opinion leaders or 'Influentials.'" [14] She cites research by the Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet showing that "Online Political Citizens" (OPCs) like the people who visit MoveOn are "seven times more likely than average citizens to serve as opinion leaders among their friends, relatives and colleagues . . . Normally, 10% of Americans qualify as Influentials. Our study found that 69% of Online Political Citizens are Influentials." [15]

MoveOn's activities are not limited to Internet and media. From the beginning, it has sought to engage people in real-world activism. Although its petition opposing the impeachment of Bill Clinton collected signers over the Internet, more than 2,000 volunteers participated in hand-delivering the petitions to members of Congress - a strategy that it used again in organizing against the war in Iraq. In February 2003, journalist Scott Duke Harris observed that "MoveOn's long-term success ... may hinge on its ability to use the Net to change the way business has been done in the offline world. The group has challenged the notion, for instance, that only big contributors can get face-to-face meetings with policy makers. In recent weeks, it recruited members through online emails to form groups to meet with members of Congress. More than 400 meetings have taken place." [16] MoveOn has collaborated with groups like Meetup.com in organizing street demonstrations, bake sales, house parties and other opportunities for people to meet personally and act collectively in their own communities. According to Don Hazen, "MoveOn's most dramatic achievement was to turn its Internet machine – focused on petitions, emails to policy makers and raising and distributing money to political candidates – into face-to-face activism and grassroots media buying, the kind of activities that make politicians in this country sit up and take notice."[2]

Reasons for MoveOn's success, according to Hazen, have included the following:

  • "First, they are not dependent on foundation money, with all its attendant worries about how to behave and when the next grant will come."
  • "Second, they have 'hard money' – as opposed to grants and tax-deductible contributions – which enables them to be partisan, contribute to political campaigns and exercise clout in the political process. 'Everyone told us we couldn't raise hard money, but it has not been a problem,' notes Pariser."
  • "Third, thanks to Wes Boyd's technology savvy, MoveOn is very sophisticated on the web. They have addresses of all their members and can organize them to zip-plus-four, an incredible asset in influencing political campaigns. MoveOn also doesn't over-intellectualize or talk down to its members."[2]

MoveOn's fundraising success is also partly a reflection of changes in federal election laws. Under the terms of the McCain/Feingold election finance reform legislation, which went into effect in 2002, political parties were allowed to raise larger amounts of "hard money" contributions, but were forbidden from raising "soft money" — a change that tended to favor Republicans, who have historically been more successful than Democrats at raising hard money. As a result, individuals who sought to influence the 2004 election gave money to non-party organizations like MoveOn, which are still able to engage in political advertising using soft money under section 527 of U.S. tax code. "Thanks to 527s, we will be outspent by the Democrats," said Ken Mehlman, manager of the Bush-Cheney campaign. "MoveOn.org is a huge threat and has hurt the President. Every action makes a difference."[3]

Call for Change

MoveOn created a new system for reaching out to potential voters in the 2006 midterm elections named Call for Change (C4C). It provides MoveOn members with the technology to call individual voters in key districts and talk to them about the issues. As part of the Call for Change effort, MoveOn has organized thousands of C4C house parties and local MoveOn C4C offices to facilitate over 7 million phone calls in preparation for the midterm elections. At these events, members bring their cell phones to the party and call registered voters using a list provided to the host.

Personnel

  • Joan Blades, Co-Chair, Board of Directors
  • Wes Boyd, Chair, Board of Directors
  • Carrie Olson, Chief Operating Officer, Board of Directors (PAC)
  • Eli Pariser, Executive Director
    • Adam Ruben, Political Director, responsible for MoveOn Political Action's electoral strategy
    • Justin Ruben, Organizing Director, who oversees "Operation Democracy," MoveOn's in-depth volunteer driven field network
    • Tom Matzzie, Washington Director, who maintains relationships on Capitol Hill and runs campaigns
    • Adam Green, Civic Communications Director, who handles communications for MoveOn's c4 and leads campaigns on media reform issues like Net Neutrality, public airwaves for the public good, and taking on Fox
    • Nita Chaudhary, Advocate, who runs campaigns on civil liberties, Censure, and other issues
    • Jennifer Lindenauer, PAC Communications Director
    • Laura Dawn, Cultural Director, co-creator of Bush in 30 Seconds, who develops and runs cultural engagement campaigns like the celebrity directed "10 Weeks" ads and the Vote for Change tour.
  • Patrick Michael Kane of We Also Walk Dogs, Inc. has worked as MoveOn's System Architect, designing, building and managing MoveOn's web and mailing infrastructure. According to Wes Boyd, We Also Walk Dogs "solves our mass mailing, web database, and security problems in shockingly short timeframes. Without them, our campaigns would be impossible."

Controversy and Criticism

  • MoveOn was criticized by several Jewish advocacy groups, among others, when a member-submitted TV ad which compared President George W. Bush to Adolf Hitler briefly appeared on the MoveOn website. The ad was part of a MoveOn-sponsored contest during the 2004 presidential election in which people were invited to create and submit political TV ads critical of the Bush administration.[4][5][6] The advertisement was quickly removed.
  • Fox News criticized the organization after it successfully encouraged the 2008 Democratic Presidential Candidates not to attend two debates sponsored by the network. Fox News advisor David Rhodes and the network's commentators Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly have claimed that MoveOn.org "owns" the Democratic Party.[7][8]
  • MoveOn was criticized by numerous Republicans and several Democrats for running a print ad in The New York Times about General David Petraeus which spelled "General Petraeus or General Betray us?"[9]

Relationships with other organizations

MoveOn has collaborated on projects with a number of other organizations, including:

MoveOn has also retained the services of advertising, PR and design firms, including:

MoveOn is not connected with "MoveOnForAmerica", a conservative organization with a confusingly similar name that was set up by Stephen Marks, a Republican political consultant, and which was criticized for the falsehoods in its advertisements attacking John Kerry. [18]

Candidates supported

Since the 2000 election cycle, the MoveOn PAC has endorsed and supported the campaigns of dozens of progressive candidates.

2000 election

2002 election

2006 election

  • Ned Lamont, who defeated three-term Democratic incumbent Joe Lieberman in the Connecticut Democratic primary, but lost in the general election against Lieberman, who ran as an independent. [Lost]
  • Patrick Murphy, Democratic nominee for Pennsylvania's 8th Congressional District. [Won]
  • Westport first selectwoman Diane Farrell, Democratic nominee for Connecticut's 4th Congressional District. [Lost]
  • Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV), running for re-election to his tenth term in the U.S. Senate [Won]
  • Pennsylvania State Treasurer Bob Casey, Jr., Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate. [Won]
  • Senator Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), running for his second term. [Won]
  • Montana State Senate President Jon Tester (D-MT), running to unseat Conrad Burns (R-MT) [Won]
  • Former Congressman Nick Lampson, Democratic candidate for Texas's 22nd Congressional District. [Won]
  • Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate. [Won]
  • Cardiff School District Board Trustee Francine Busby, Democratic candidate for California's 50th Congressional District. [Lost]
  • Former Congressman Ciro Rodriguez, Democratic candidate for Texas' 23rd Congressional District, pending redistricting decisions.[Won]
  • Bob Shamansky, Democratic candidate for 12th congressional district of Ohio. [Lost]
  • Gabrielle Giffords, Democratic candidate for Arizona's 8th congressional district. [Won]
  • Jason Altmire, Democratic candidate for Pennsylvania's 4th congressional district [Won]
  • John Yarmuth, Democratic candidate for 3rd congressional district of Kentucky. [Won]
  • Tim Mahoney, Democratic candidate for 16th congressional district of Florida, running against Mark Foley's replacement. [Won]
  • Ron Klein, Democratic candidate for Florida's 22nd congressional district, running against 12-term Republican incumbent Clay Shaw. [Won]
  • Bruce Braley, Iowa. [Won]
  • Martin O'Malley, Democratic candidate for governor of Maryland. [Won]
  • Doug Gansler, Democratic candidate for Attorney General of Maryland. [Won]
  • James T. Smith, Jr., Democratic incumbent for Baltimore County (Maryland) Executive. [Won]

[List incomplete]

Financial contributors

  • MoveOn's spending as an advocacy group is listed at Open Secrets: Advocacy Group Spending ("data is based on records released by the Internal Revenue Service on Monday, October 23, 2006").
  • According to the March 10, 2004, Washington Post, "The Democratic 527 organizations have drawn support from some wealthy liberals determined to defeat Bush. They include financier George Soros who gave $1.46 million to MoveOn.org Voter Fund (in the form of matching funds to recruit additional small donors); Peter B. Lewis, chief executive of the Progressive Corp., who gave $500,000 to MoveOn.org Voter Fund; and Linda Pritzker, of the Hyatt hotel family, and her Sustainable World Corp., who gave $4 million to the joint fundraising committee." [19]

Books

  • MoveOn's 50 Ways to Love Your Country. Maui, Hawaii: Inner Ocean Pub. 2004. ISBN 1-930722-29-X.
  • Laura Dawn (ed.), ed. (2006). It Takes a Nation: How Strangers Became Family in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina. foreword by Barack Obama, photographs by C.B. Smith. Earth Aware. ISBN 1-932771-86-7. {{cite book}}: |editor= has generic name (help)

See also

References

  1. ^ "MoveOn.org becomes anti-Bush powerhouse". CNN. 2004-01-13. Retrieved 2006-10-23.
  2. ^ a b Hazen, Don (2003-02-11). "Moving On: A New Kind of Peace Activism". AlterNet. Retrieved 2006-10-23.
  3. ^ Bolton (2004-04-20). "527 surge takes Kerry past Bush". The Hill. Retrieved 2006-10-23. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |name= ignored (help)
  4. ^ [1]
  5. ^ [2]
  6. ^ [3]
  7. ^ http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nevada/2007/mar/09/030910456.html
  8. ^ http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/03/10/debate.canceled/index.html
  9. ^ [4]
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