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By Kellie Lunney, National Journal
© National Journal Group Inc.
Friday, Nov. 16, 2007

John McCain caught the attention of at least one teenager during his first presidential run. Richard Sales was a high school student in 2000, planning a career in music composition. But that trajectory changed when the senator from Arizona -- some two generations older than Sales -- ran for the Republican nomination that year. "It was an upstart, maverick campaign, and it was my senator," says Sales, an Arizona native, who now works as the Internet ad director at the National Republican Senatorial Committee. "I agreed with the message of government reform and of changing Washington. It got me excited in politics." After all, it was McCain who used the Internet to help power him to a primary win in New Hampshire. He then raised $1 million online in 48 hours, pioneering a potent political fundraising tool used by Democrat Howard Dean in 2004 and Republican Ron Paul in 2007.

Sales, now 22, creates and edits online video for the NRSC, which has a new multimedia studio in the basement of its Capitol Hill headquarters. Through technology, Sales has found a way to combine his talent for composing music with cutting-edge political communication. "I don't think I would have been hired if not for technology," he says. Rebecca Fisher, communications director at the NRSC and Sales's boss, is savvy enough to know that folks are "eyeballing my staffers," including Sales and John Randall, 28, the committee's e-press secretary, who is responsible for all online media. Fisher, 31, worked on McCain's 2000 presidential campaign and was an aide in his Senate office.

If there's anything Washington excels at, it's attracting talent and creating jobs. Every generation that flocks here begins life in the capital as the "young people" who inevitably grow up and become the "establishment." Each generation bequeaths the culture that shapes how Washington does business, often for a very long time. Whether it's a Kennedyesque vision of public service, or a more efficient way to communicate, Washington eventually catches up with the rest of the country. This generation's gift is its unconditional love for technology. It's not a perk to them; it's necessary for the survival of the political species. "It's a prerequisite," says Cyrus Krohn, e-campaign director at the Republican National Committee. "If you're not on the Internet in some way, shape, or form, then you've got to question the viability of that effort."

Krohn, however, distinguishes between technology and the Internet, noting that Washington has long mastered the database technology of mailing lists and other contact information crucial to campaigns and fundraising. "There is a high degree of sophistication with that here," says Krohn, a Fairfax, Va., native, who spent more than a decade at Microsoft and then Yahoo! on the West Coast before returning to Washington. But the establishment is only scratching the surface when it comes to multimedia, he says. "I think the Beltway is just now starting to wake up to the realities of what this medium means for the political process, both in terms of campaigning and communicating as an elected official." In other words, politics 2.0 is just beginning to take root inside Washington. It's not sparking a revolution yet, but it is creating more jobs for the next generation, who could well spark that revolution.

Graphic: Washington Media Habits A more diverse, tech-savvy generation is changing the culture and workflow of the nation's capital. This graphic shows the average time a common Washington professional spends consuming news.

"I think technology in politics has opened the door for people in technology to learn politics, but you've got to love politics in order to work in the field," says Jason Rosenberg, director of online communications for the Democratic National Convention Committee. Rosenberg, 28, didn't consider himself a "tech guy." As a Young Democrat at San Diego State University during the 2000 presidential campaign, Rosenberg volunteered to work at the Democratic convention in Los Angeles. He started as an intern, and by summer, when the convention rolled around, he was serving in a more senior capacity. "I thought, 'If you can rise this quickly, then politics is for me,' " says Rosenberg, who went on to work for the Citizen Soldier Fund, the political action committee of Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and then as online video director for EchoDitto, an online communications company in Washington for progressive and nongovernmental organizations.

Rosenberg is part of a cadre of relatively young and anonymous political aides who have a foot in two worlds -- the door-knocking one of traditional politics, and the unscripted and unpredictable one of the Internet. They view themselves as communicators, not techies, although many of them are self-taught in the basics of design and programming. Randall of the NRSC works closely with bloggers who are sympathetic to the Republican Party's message, in part to attract the mainstream media's attention to information they might otherwise ignore. It's not just an online media strategy but an overall media strategy -- one that benefits both the political party and the careers of bloggers. The Dead Pelican, an "underground" Louisiana news site and blog that leans right, reported in June that sources told it that Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., who received campaign contributions from New Yorkers, put in an earmark request for a New York-based company. Landrieu, who says that the request was for a program benefiting Louisiana, attacked the blog through a press release, and the story eventually made the local television news.

"A lot of bloggers almost adhere to journalistic rules," says Randall, a former director of radio and television at the National Republican Congressional Committee. But Randall doesn't feel beholden to bloggers as he once did to the almighty traditional media. "If they burn me, I don't have to go back."

Television and print are still power players in the game; not everyone is logging on to Facebook or downloading YouTube videos. In a survey on news consumption habits in Washington conducted by National Journal Group's research division, nearly 50 percent of respondents indicated that they first obtain news during the workday through the print edition of a national daily newspaper. When asked if they read blogs, 44 percent answered "never" or "only rarely," according to the survey. "No one can match the ability of TV, radio, and print to reach millions of people," says David Almacy, 36, who was Internet and e-communications director for the Bush White House and is now Waggener Edstrom's vice president of Digital Strategies Group for North America. "But the Internet brings millions of things to one person."

Washington has, of course, been teeming with technology for a while: cellphones, iPhones, BlackBerrys, and Beltway blogs abound. No self-respecting Hill aides or political operatives would be caught dead without their "CrackBerrys." That's primarily how Washington's citizenry keeps in touch. Electronic communication is the preferred method between press secretaries and reporters, lobbyists and Hill staff, White House aides and agency officials.

Talking with -- and not just at -- the populace outside Washington has always been a challenge for Beltway insiders. Campaigns, particularly presidential ones, are ahead of the rest of the political sphere in embracing and using technology to further their agendas while engaging the public. That's because they are closer to the ground than Washington, attract a younger demographic, and have fewer restrictions and more flexibility. And of course, the campaigns need to tap outside support for sustenance.

But the federal government has taken baby steps. President Bush made e-government a major tenet of his five-point management agenda during his first term, and Capitol Hill is slowly opening up. For example, many lawmakers, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., feature blogs on their websites, although most are not very interactive. They broadcast messages but don't seem to attract much information -- or interest -- from the outside world.

Some on Capitol Hill are using technology to frame policy in an engaging way and to reach a wider audience. The majority at the House Education and Labor Committee, chaired by Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., produced a YouTube video recently touting the merits of the 2007 College Cost Reduction and Access Act, a law that increases federal grants to low-income college students and cuts interest rates. The video, dubbed "Looking for Love," is a spoof on television commercials from e-Harmony, a popular online dating service. A Miller aide, wearing a giant check around his neck, tells viewers tongue-in-cheek, "I'll be honest: I'm really into college students." An announcer urges viewers to check the committee's website to see if they're "compatible." The video, while goofy, has logged nearly 80,000 views on YouTube and generated some intense discussion about access to federal grant money -- more attention than the law would have drawn from a wonky press release.

Ultimately, it's a marriage of the "old" and the "new" that many see as the right approach to successful communication in politics and government right now. And to some degree that philosophy is reflected in the people working here. Krohn has a degree in journalism and communications, and he worked for CNN before heading off to Seattle to help start Slate. Heath Kern, director of digital media and editor-in-chief of the State Department's new blog for the diplomatic corps, Dipnote, spent the bulk of her career in television in New York City before coming to Washington. And Sean Gibbons, the son of former Reuters White House correspondent Gene Gibbons, worked at ABC News and CNN before heading to the Center for American Progress as director of media strategy.

Krohn, Kern, and Gibbons are all in their 30s. Gibbons says that although it's important to speak the language of the digitalized generation -- people in their 20s and 30s -- it's a mistake to disregard traditional media. "At the Center for American Progress, we know that old-guard media is incredibly important, largely because of how Washington works." At least for now. "There is presumably someone on Facebook and My Space today who will be a future president of the United States," Krohn says, "already building their constituency and not realizing it."