May 11, 2007
On The Download: A Web Site's Worth
What's a Web site's worth in 2008? It's a question that bears asking in light of the recent incident over Barack Obama's MySpace volunteer asking for payment for his work on the social networking site.
After all, direct mail firms can prove their price tag how much money they've brought in for a candidate. Field staffs can show off how many volunteers they've recruited for a campaigns' ground game. Communication shops have the press clips to prove it. But other than online donations, how does an Internet department prove its worth? It's more difficult to put a price on MySpace Friends, unique hits or volunteer bloggers.
OTD has compiled FEC Q1 numbers from PoliticalMoneyLine.com in conjunction with information from the campaigns on who's working on and consulting for WH '08ers Web sites. The full chart is after the jump, but here's a preview of some of the more notable numbers:
*Mitt Romney and Hillary Clinton paid the most for their actual Web sites, about $412K and $202K, respectively, in Q1.
*Dennis Kucinich spent by far the largest percentage of his total expenditures on his Internet shop and Web site -- in no small part because his total expenditures were very low.
*Who wins the Web site value award for Q1? Chris Dodd and Barack Obama. Though both had Senate Web sites off which they could build, but presentation and features are certainly above par for their price tag.
*Obama and Richardson both listed payments to ActBlue/Auburn Quad. Edwards' campaign should also be part of this group, considering he's raised millions through the Democratic donation portal.
*Is it possible to guess how much ABC PAC (the Republican answer to ActBlue) charge? By simple math on the report, Giuliani raised $43 on the Web site in Q1 and paid the Web site $3. Judging only by those numbers, ABC PAC is taking a 6.9% cut off of every donation -- in the range of a standard amount.
*While Democrats have spurred quite a few firms since Dean's '04 campaign, some of the Republican Internet firms are on their first cycle. Among the newbies for a WH campaign: ElectionEdge.Us, LCM Strategies, Molecular and Adfero Group [SHIRA TOEPLITZ].
Check out the list after the jump.... Questions? Comments Suggestions? E-mail us.
A few words of caution before proceeding: John Edwards campaign declined to give us the names of all the online firms they worked with and the known entities were not found on PoliticalMoneyLine.com's version of his FEC report. John McCain's campaign declined to give us a list of their in-house Internet staffers except for their online director. Hillary Clinton's campaign did not return requests on the names of in-house Internet staffers.
Sam Brownback
Listed firms ($61K total): Aristotle ($43K), ElectionEdge.us ($18K).
In-house Internet Staff: Leon Wolf ($1.5K).
Mike Huckabee
Listed firms: GSL Solutions, Inc. ($11K), LCM Strategies*.
In-house Internet Staff: Zach Taylor ($540).
Hillary Clinton
Listed firms ($713K total): NGP ($511K), Mayfield Strategies ($202K).
In-house Internet Staff ($58K): Peter Dauo, Jesse Berney, Nancy Eiring, Crystal Patterson, Kevin Thurman.
Chris Dodd
Listed firms ($36K): Aristotle ($35.5K) and Wired for Change ($500).
In-house Internet Staff ($28K): Tim Cullen, Brett Schenker, Tim Tagaris.
Joe Biden
Listed firms ($39K): NGP ($34K), GetActive ($4.5K), Articulated Man ($975).
In-house Internet Staff ($19K): Eric Carbone, Timonthy Westmyer.
John Edwards
Listed firms (at least $36K): Matthew Gross Communications ($20K), NGP ($14K), Advocacy Automated ($2.4K), plus unlisted consultants.
In-house Internet Staff ($28K): Aaron Myers, Ben Brandzel, Amanda Marcotte, Melissa McEwan, George Stern, Tracy Russo*, Joe Trippi*.
Rudy Giuliani
Listed firms ($299K): Opera New Media ($268K), Adfero Group ($24K), Patrick Ruffini ($8K).
In-house Internet Staff: Katie Harbath ($14K).
Duncan Hunter
Listed firms ($55K total): Election Mall ($25K), JCA Com Inc ($17K), Aristotle ($2K), TCV Media ($12K).
In-house Internet Staff: None.
Dennis Kucinich
Listed firms($10K total): Paypal ($2.4K), Akrobiz.com ($7K).
In-house Internet Staff ($60K total): Michael Criscione, Chad Ely, Karen Kilroy.
John McCain
Listed firms ($94K): EDonation.com ($189K), Campaign Solutions ($79K), New Media Strategics ($15K).
In-house Internet Staff: Christian Ferry ($20K).
Barack Obama
Listed firms ($247K total): NGP ($72K), Auburn Quad ($62K), Blue State Digital ($36K), Pair.com ($5K), Google Adwords ($72K).
In-house Internet Staff ($31K total): Joe Rospars, Jim Brayton, Samuel Graham-Felson, Chris Hughes, Chris Northcross, Jessica Slider.
Ron Paul
Listed firms: Bill Dumas Productions ($14K)
In-house Internet Staff: Justine Lam ($5K)
Bill Richardson
Listed firms ($62K total): Blue State Digital ($17K), NGP Software, Inc. ($11K), Auburn Quad ($10K), Care2 ($10K), Rock Coast ($5K), Articulated Man ($8K).
In-house Internet Staff ($11K total): Andrea Johnson, Joaquin Guerra, Seth Tanner.
Mitt Romney
Listed firms ($584K total): Molecular ($412K), Salesforce.com ($124K), DigiNovations ($47K).
In-house Internet Staff ($10K): Mindy Finn*, Abby Brack, Larry Simmons, Stephen Smith.
Tom Tancredo
Listed firms: Aristotle ($10.5K).
In-house Internet Staff: Mike Tate ($600).
Tommy Thompson
Listed firms ($8K): Maelstorm Solutions ($6.6K), Aristotle ($1.5K).
In-house Internet Staff: none.
*Came on staff after Q1.
Posted at 09:17 AM
Comments
Does ABCPAC actually take a cut of contributions, or are they set up like ActBlue where contributors have the option of giving a donation to the PAC in addition to the candidate contribution?
Thomas Allen | 05.11.07 10:18 AM
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Both ActBlue and ABC PAC subtract credit card fees (and only credit card fees) before forwarding contributions.
In addition, both groups allow you to make an additional contribution supporting their infrastructure.
Just Checked It Out | 05.11.07 12:42 PM
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Jessica | 01.28.08 10:32 AM
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listik-28081 | 03.01.08 10:17 AM
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