The Gurus - Internet Strategists - Meet the OPOs - Online Political Operatives, Such as Mindy Finn and Stephen Smith, Want New Media to Send a New Message

Excerpt:
"Howard Dean's cometlike campaign in 2003 was the first to integrate the Internet into a presidential race, and Joe Rospars was there, a 22-year-old working as an "all-around Web guy" until the campaign suddenly collapsed.

Four years later, it's not just the upstarts, as Dean was, who have embraced online campaigning. And Rospars is part of a new generation of strategists who share a passionate belief that they can transform not just individual campaigns but also politics itself.

Rospars, 26, today runs a staff of 11 at the Chicago headquarters of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). Mathew Gross, 35, who blogged for Dean a few desks away from Rospars, serves as chief online strategist for Democrat John Edwards in Chapel Hill, N.C. Mindy Finn, 26, a veteran of the 2004 Bush campaign, does the same for Republican Mitt Romney in Boston. Every campaign has someone similar -- young, tech-savvy and committed to the transforming possibilities of the Internet."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/03/AR2007050302546.html

Alex

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