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Interactive Campaigning ala Wiki
brettlg writes to tell us LinuxInsider is reporting that Utah Democratic hopeful, Peter Ashdown, is hoping to leverage his knowledge of the internet and small business resourcefulness to take down the incumbent Senator Orrin Hatch next year. From the article: "Peter Ashdown is the founder of Xmission, Utah's oldest Internet service provider (ISP). His Web site includes a blog and a monthly live chat session. But Ashdown's site takes public participation on his campaign Web site one step further -- opening his platform to all. The site is based on the "Wiki" open-source model made famous by Wikipedia."
Is wiki such a good idea in politics where partisanship is everywhere.
Peter Ashdown, is hoping to leverage his knowledge of the internet
seriously, is it so hard to just 'leverage' the word 'use' instead. I run into leverage freakin' everywhere whenever something has to sound important.
And only seems to contain one paragraph mentioning that there will be a wiki. Is there info on editing and the like?
Unpretentious Sydney reviews by unqualified Sydney reviewers
He's gonna get flamed worse than Stormfront. Edit wars, anyone?
The problem with this idea is it's just a magnet for people to tamper with his page - Wiki had to block edits of Bush and Kerry during the 2004 election. There isn't the mechanisms to revert changes and viewers can get a bad impression. Just now, for instance, I noticed that somebody defaced his website by posting a picture of a really geeky-looking white guy.
Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
Or in Pete's office, they say 'launch' a campaign.
i ty/cybercrime/story/0,10801,82317,00.html
Good luck Pete, nobody in their right mind wants the incumbent Senator Orrin Hatch who once advocated putting malware on people's computers in order to stop them from downloading songs.
See: http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/secur
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
He is the guy behind a lot of the DRM bills like DMCA, TPM enforcment, extending copyrights etc.
I hope he gets choped.
"Any legitimate purchaser of media or technology should be able to use their property as they see fit without government intervention. Technology progresses rapidly and we need technologically savvy lawmakers who can lead us in sound policy making. Currently, there are legislators who repeatedly attempt to pass laws reigning in the Internet and other technologies. They do this at the beck and call of multibillion dollar industries by expanding the definition of copyright. Industry which refuses to adapt to technology should not be protected by making that technology illegal. Smaller music and film companies use the Internet to their benefit and should not be penalized by the behemoths' refusal of progress. Lawmakers tilting the playing field do not encourage small business and home innovators to take risks, and thus hold back our economy." from http://vote.peteashdown.org/bio/
:)
He gets my Vote... if I lived in Utah, also one of his previous jobs was a Computer Tech, which makes him over qualified for Politics... but oh well
"If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried"
...they never learn from history.
I like Wikipedia but I thought Wiki were made famous by c2.com.
....on how long before the notorious Wikipedia vandals reduce that site to smoldering ruins.
Remember, msft is the major player in the scox-scam. Msft is financing the entire thing. And remember that msft tried to keep that secret.
Frankly, when considering it's msft, I wonder if it's possible to be paranoid. Think of all the bizare and brazenly illegal activities that msft can been caught doing: fake grass campaigns - including letters from dead people, faked video evidence in DOJ trial, the entire ODF fiasco in MA. . .
That said, remember that Hatch's kid works for scox. Also remember that Hatch is on the judicial commitee, which means that Hatch has significant say-so over the careers of the federal judges in Utah.
Anybody familiar with the scox-scam knows that these judges have been insanely pro-scox from the start. The fact that obvious farce is still going strong after nearly three years speaks volumes. The trials don't even start for another 1.5 years.
.. but this is definitely going to end up counteracting any positive coverage he gains from the site. At best, he ends up with a lot of negative posts from people who support his rivals. At worst, he ends up drowning in noise.
Also - bandwagon, jumping on?
I used to think wikis were pretty neat.
Leave it to a politician to ruin a good idea.
Register the editry.
-OH
The Green Party of Canada has been using a Wiki to write its Living Platform.
Have a look at the Living Platform here.
From the website; The Living Platform is a collection of pages that grows and evolves through membership cooperative participation - another example of the Green Party's comitment to open deliberation and community driven politics.
Public debate doesn't belong in a wiki. That's what message boards are for. The wiki is for content and conclusions made from the end result of flame wars or debates. Controls need to be implemented so the content is of good quality (like a rating system). Its the same reason Wikipedia is not considered a legitimate source of info.
Did this man read All The President's Men? Does he know what CREEP "ratfucking" types will do to his precious Wiki once they find out? He'd better pray his user base is high enough to root out sustained vandalism.
May the Maths Be with you!
His ISP also hosts Maddox. I'd vote for him.
Hatch has advantages, one of which is his seniority. The fact that he has been in office so long means that he can bring home more bacon. The new guy, were he to win, wouldn't be able to bring home so much bacon.
Anyone who is getting bacon from Hatch would tend to not want the new guy, figuring that he'd be losing out.
The tech is a minor point -- the bacon hits people in the pocketbook.
"Bacon" here is political slang for "benefits that your politician brings to his community via the political process."
http://www.thebricktestament.com/the_law/when_to_
Ahh Orrin Hatch, who previously brought us gems like the Induce Act. I hope people will vote accross partisan lines in this election and get rid of clueless Senators like Hatch. Next up, House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner's Digital Transition Content Security Act. Hold your politicians accountable!
The open politics combines traditions of the free software and open content movements with postmoderism, and promotes a decision making method claimed to be a more open, less antagonistic, and more capable of determining what is in the public interest with respect to public policy issues.
Criteria
Underlying preferences
Implementation
These criteria are generally satisfied by a wiki or some other collaborative workspace in which multiple points of view are conveyed and reviewable in "living documents" that reflect, on an ongoing basis, what the community thinks.
History
Open Politics grew from earlier work in online deliberation and deliberative democracy, which in turn drew on research in issue-based argument and early hypertext and Computer Supported Cooperative Work research of the early 1980s.
The 2003-04 Deanspace project is widely considered to be the first serious attempt at Open Politics. It grew into Civicspace and was largely relying on blog and meetup technologies to build some support behind Democratic Party dark horse Howard Dean. It was largely an emergent, unplanned effort. In fact, meetup.com simply applied its ordinary stupid algorithm to a number of members who had listed "Howard Dean" (a mere text string to that algorithm) in their list of interests. It obediently buzz-clicked out a scheduled time for a live "meetup", and open politics history began, with no intelligence being directly involved at all (which some find ironic, and others, fitting).
The 2004-05 Green Party of Canada Living Platform was a much more planned and designed effort at Open Politics. As it prepared itself for an electoral breakthrough in the 2004 federal election, the Green Party of Canada began to compile citizen, member and expert opinions in preparation of its platform. During the election, it gathered input even from Internet trolls including supporters of other parties, with no major problems: anonymity was respected and comments remained intact if they were within the terms of use at all. Despite, or perhaps because of, its early success, it was derailed by the party's leader, when he discovered that it was a threat to his status as a party boss. The Living Platform split off as another service entirely out of GPC control and eventually evolved into openpolitics.ca and
I couldn't agree more!
Many people say that wikis aren't good for general discussion. This isn't what wikis are about. These wikis are about getting a general idea of the discussion and have it filtered through into one fine print page that everyone has agreed on, or at least most people have agreed on.
It's about reaching a conclusion among his voters, which is very important in developing both support and an idea of what the people want.
In this goal, he will be succesful.
I read the title and though immediately of D&D, Cthulhu, etc... through Wiki. Where you could have the public modify the game as it goes on.
Much to my dissapointment, it was a political campaign...
Mid-Eastern Pennsylvania Gaming Convention
They really throw the word "famous" around nowadays.
I mean, the Wikipedia concept isn't even completely saturated among the geek community, much less the other 90% of the world (Grandma Cornfarmer, of Podunk Kansas comes to mind). That's like saying Fark/Slashdot/4Chan are "famous," even when they're all taking a slice from the same pie and have no measurable "more famousness" than each other.
This whole wikipedia craze in the geek news sites reminds me so much of the collective pants-wetting conventional media has over hurricaines lately. "This just in ladies and gentlemen, we hate to break into the report of an asteroid on a collision course with earth, but apparently the founder of Internet Site Wikipedia is personally asking visitors for funding! We go live now to this story."
I've met and talked to Orrin Hatch many times, and his daughter-in-law is a good friend, but he needs to go down. He has this strange knack for making the wrong first decision every time. Sometimes someone points it out to him, and he back-pedals (stem-cell research); but by and large, he has consistently made this country a worse place to live in.
That said, Pete Ashdown isn't the man to do it. See, I've met him on several occasions, and while he is a techie and may get those questions right, he is not a people person. At all. Much like Orrin, he himself is first on the priority list. XMission is a wonderful ISP, and far and away the best available in Utah (I wish someone as good as them existed in Upstate New York), and I thank Pete for that. Stick to tech.
alt.rave
This link to the actual wiki was omitted from the original post:
a ge
http://vote.peteashdown.org/wiki/index.php/Main_P
For the record I think the wiki is a great idea. It's the next evolutionary step from blogging, and fosters a more open, transparent environment for discussion
I just happend to click on that guys Wiki right when someone changed his main page... print screen...see it here... http://static.flickr.com/36/82038003_b4490f0f66_o. jpg
Actually, the folks of Utah have the "rightest" (aka Reddest) minds in America. Their last Democratic Senator was Ted Moss, defeated by Orrin Hatch in 1976, and the only reason they have one Democrat (out of 3) in the House is that Rep. Matheson proudly proclaims he's "more independent than [his party] may like".
And party affiliation aside, ranking incumbents with important chairmanships do not lose reelection. Too much pork is at stake. Wiki is a cute gimmick to drum up some buzz, but in the end he'll go down in flames just like the famously Internet-based campaign of Howard Dean.Man, you sure love your bacon.
I just hit up his wiki at:
a ge
http://vote.peteashdown.org/wiki/index.php/Main_P
And under the main article it clearly states:
"I AM PETER OF GAYTORIA HEAR MY ROAR"
So I think partisan politics is the least of his worries with an open wiki. Heck... Even encyclopediadramatica isn't an open wiki.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
Yes, just like the open source movement has taken down Microsoft on the desktop.
The Rise and Fall of Online Community
(I'm sure to get modded a troll or something, but...) I have my share of dislike for Hatch too -- he led the charge to get Clinton impeached, while angrily dismissing all complaints about the ludicrious amounts of money being spent by the independent counsel (over $50 million by the end). He's the archtypical right-wing nutjob, BUT - read And the Band Played On. Hatch was personally responsible for getting the Senate to approve most of the AIDS funding during the early years of AIDS, when the Reagan administration was adamantly refusing to spend anything on AIDS (the administration claimed it was spending "$100 million for AIDS related research." But since even the common flu can kill you when you have AIDS, they were counting basically everything they were spending on any disease. In reality, the only agency doing any research on AIDS was the CDC - something they were not set up for.) Anyway, as the book says, Hatch was one of the few right-wingers who wasn't willing to play politics with health-related issues. So he (an extreme-right winger) was at the forefront of getting money for AIDS research at a time when it was primarily a "gay disease".
To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.
--E.C. Stanton
Jesus Christ on a pogo stick! Could you possibly fit any MORE bullshit emotional loading into one god damn sentence?
I typically vote Republican and have voted for Hatch in the past but I feel that Pete's attention to his customers (through XMission) will translate to his constituents. I will definitely vote for him this fall.
Who am I to blow against the wind? -- Paul Simon
That was the idea! Better the a shot of espresso in the morning? I figured that a backhanded partisan story should be exposed with a blatant, hyper-opposing response.
an ill wind that blows no good
At Pete Ashdown's site page on economic issues, he claims "The United States of America has historically been an economic superpower and an innovator of technology. We harnessed electricity, invented the light-bulb and the television, but what have we produced lately?"
Let's see: The iPod, the SonicCare toothbrush, the Tivo, the E-Z pass, and there are these little things called CPUs produced by Intel and AMD.
U.S. resident inventors received 85,238 out of 165,485 U.S. patents in fiscal year 2005, which isn't too bad for a country that has only 6% of global population.
He then goes on to add: "Meanwhile the international community is closing in on energy production through fusion, and guess where the first operating plant is being built -- not in the U.S.A." Despite the fact that the plant in question, ITER, is a multinational project with partial American funding and scientific support! Moreover, ITER is not going to be an "operating plant," it will be a "fusion experiment" and is in no way a real prototype of a fusion plant.
Furthermore, he states "The Chinese are gearing up to clean our clock economically with no oil dependence at all." Based on empirical evidence, Chinese economic growth is compatible with US economic growth. Moreover, while the Chinese are beginning to investigate nuclear fission, and they have plans to build huge numbers of coal-burning electic power plants, they have no plans to eradicate their oil usage.
Mr. Ashdown appears to be AN ECONOMIC IDIOT.
Where is that Wiki...
Everyone on slashdot likes to hate on Orrin Hatch because of his draconian record on copyright enforcement.
However, as a biologist, I'd say that the worst legislation he has pushed, by *far*, was the legislation that exempted natural remedies from the effectiveness and SAFETY requirements applied to modern medicine. People DIED.
Unfortunately, his challenger hasn't a snowball's chance in hell. This is a Democrat, running in *Utah*. The beloved leader carried that state by something like 70-30.
So, the Democrats are perfectly happy to run some geeky little guy who'll embarass himself by letting people edit (deface) his campaign webpage.
The good and new comes from no quarter where it is looked for, and is always something different from what is expected.
Your logic is flawed, if you truly believe in 'may the best man win' then Pete should be your man. Don't think that just because he is a techie, he can't run things!
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
http://vote.peteashdown.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Pa ge
Yeah, tech didn't help Al Gore and he INVENTED the freakin' internet. http://www.sethf.com/gore/
Support Right To Repair Legislation.
He is running for Senate, not the House of Representatives.
ala != à la
Actually, Stormfront's moderators keep it mostly unsinged.
Looks like someone who is currently at 161.184.178.6 (come on if enough people 'ping' him...), keeps thinking that it's a funny joke, or perhaps this Peter lives in Gaytoria, Canada.
But if he wants a real shot at getting elected, he had better have a plan to get his face seen on TV, get endorsements, get on the radio, put up yard signs, flood the voters with mailers, get volunteers working the precincts door to door, and all the other old-fashioned tactics.
Seniority...funny.
... You call him home!"
Orrin Hatch's original campaign slogan (the one that got him elected) was "What do you call a senator who's been in office for over 18 years?
Ironic now that nobody in Utah remembers it (well, all of his opponents remember it...)
This is old news. Even rebublicans are tired of Hatch. Steve Urquhart has talked of running for Hatch's seat and even got a little endorsement from Mark Cuban.
A republican running in Utah is going to have a better chance of winning anyway. Hey, it would be nice to see two pro-tech-freedom candidates running against each other!
In Utah!
I know everyone thinks this is a bad idea, but I think it's great. Finally, a senator who doesn't have his own adgenda: one that's sincerely willing to accurately represent the wishes of the people whom he represents. If he could make it so only people of his constituency could change it, even better. To me, however, this sounds like a welcome departure from the norm.
word.
I hope Pete does well. But remember Howard Dean's campaign? Technology is not a panacea. Hopefully Pete has the stuff in politics to make it work, but I doubt it. It all comes down to raising cash, getting feet on the ground, and making sure that people turn out to vote for you and not the other guy. Technology is some help, but we're not at the point yet when a Wiki or a Drupal-based web-app will solve the problem of turning platforms into dollars and voters.
I am pretty familiar with Utah politics. I don't see any way Pete is going to take down Orrin Hatch. Orrin may have been strongly in favor of "digital rights" or whatever they want to call it nowadays, but that isn't an issue for most Utah voters. Maybe in Silicon Valley it would be. On the rest of the issues, Orrin is a perfect fit for the average Utah voter. Orrin in a way is turning into the Ted Kennedy of that state. He hasn't had a serious screw-up and he's done good with what he's got.
The radical sect of Islam would either see you dead or "reverted" to Islam.
They watch more porn videos than NY.
Last time they tried to rail-road some book store owner, he got the statistics video rental stores and from some pron websites and won his case for "community standards" because most of the video rentals and pron downloads came from some ISP in Utah.
Case dismissed.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
Better the a shot of espresso in the morning?
;)
Yeah, and I work nights, you insensitive clod!
Leave it to the Democrats to have a candidate whose position/policy papers can be edited by voters.
Pete doesn't have a prayer of winning in Utah. Especially a senator's slot. Utah is a Republican state. While there are some Democratic strongholds (in parts of Salt Lake City, Carbon County, etc), the majority of the state is Republican. In fact, Utah County where I am located is the most conservative county in the country and a win in Utah county would be vital to winning a senator's position.
Please don't get me wrong, Senator Hatch is vulnerable. I have for a long time hoped that we could find the appropriate candidate to challenge him. Hatch is a nut but most of the public do not follow politics closely enough to see that. (Though if you outline some of his proposals to them they will see and agree.) The way to beat Hatch is through the Utah Republican Party convention where the delegates (of which I am one) follow politics closer than the average citizen and are by and large more conservative than Senator Hatch (who actually isn't all that conservative and is more "Washington Establishment" than anything else.) Hatch could lose in convention and a good candidate will be stronger than Hatch's money. Outside convention, Hatch's money would be king.
Best of luck to Pete. Best of luck to whoever can take Hatch out. But right now, Pete taking out Hatch is like a Republican taking out the Bay Area's Dianne Feinstiein or Barbara Boxer. It just ain't going to happen simply because of the demographics.
xmission hosts the best page in the universe, that's all that really matters. Maybe he'll run on the Regressive party...
Utah is the reddest of red states. Pete Ashdown is facing an uphill battle selling his party's platform of secular socialism, white flag diplomacy, and state sponsored infanticide to the Mormons.
This was legitimately modded flamebait, but I think it's worth responding to as though it were serious, because I think Ashdown is handling this very real problem very well.
I live in Utah, and Utah *is* the reddest of red states. Republicans hold more than 75% of both legislative houses, and it has been higher. The Republican party owns this state. It's so bad that my father in law, who is about as conservative as they come, is an active member of the Democratic party because he believes that we have to restore some balance and foster some debate.
Ashdown is handicapped by his party affiliation, but I think he's taken a very clever approach to managing it. If you read through his issues statements, in pretty much every case where the Democratic party's official position would sink him in Utah, he falls back on a States' Rights argument (which is a very popular position in Utah).
For example, on Abortion, he basically says that abortion is a terrible thing (which almost no one will deny), that we should focus on programs of education and prevention to avoid the need for abortions (again, hard to deny from either side), that the federal government shouldn't make decisions for women (make the Dems happy), that Roe v Wade was wrong (make the Reps happy) and that the legality of abortion should be left up to the states.
That's clever, because if you leave abortion rights up to the Utah state legislatures, legal abortions will be hard to get in Utah (though I doubt Utah would actually outlaw abortion). Further, Utahns have never been very happy about federal government interference, and States' Rights is a popular notion here. Utah didn't join the union to become a state, Utah joined to stop being a territory -- states have greater self-determination.
So by taking this position, Ashdown can simultaneously say that he agrees with the Democratic position that abortion should be safe and legal, and also say, effectively, that Utahns should have the right to restrict it, plus he can also get another boost from the popularity of States' Rights.
That's a formula that can work with all sorts of issues that are relatively unpopular in Utah, without completely alienating the Democratic base (which is also quite a bit more conservative than in most places). To do it he has to come out strongly in favor of States' Rights, and that's not a Democratic party position, but neither is it something the Democrats openly argue against.
He still doesn't have a chance in hell of winning against a well-connected political powerhouse like the 30-year incumbent Orrin Hatch, but it's a good strategy.
FWIW, I'm pretty conservative, but I just sent some money, ordered some bumper stickers and I'll put up an Ashdown sign in my yard after the snow melts. He deserves support, even if he is going to lose.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
I don't think tech will be the reason he wins if he does win. I think it's funny that hatch has been in office as long as he has. When hatch won the office years ago he ran with this: "What do you call someone who has been in the senate for 24 years? You call them home!".
I'm a registered voter in the senate district in question, I'll be voting for Ashdown. Every politician will do things some like and they will do things others don't. I presently feel that new blood is needed and while hatch has done some good things I don't think his involvement in the continued damaging of fair copyright law is excusable.
I think you responded to the abortion question very well. The other two issues are more difficult to dodge. My posting was stated in vigorous terms because I object to the slashdot moderators tacit democrat party leanings. I would be more interested to read about the some Republican's lonely battle opposing Teddy kennedy. This story did not provoke any meaningful debate of the use of computing technology in political campaigning. It deserves a -2 Flamebait itself.
an ill wind that blows no good
If any of you think that your Wiki submissions will actually be taken seriously should dream on. His staff is checking the entries for Vandalism, which will definitely ensure an unbiased view on the issues. Furthermore, he's already made up his mind on the issues otherwise he'd not be running against Hatch.
Apparently, he already has gotten support of Boing Boing. Oh, and he supports the EFF. So line up Slashdotters...cuz he's got your pet issue covered.
This sig donated to Pater. Long live
Here's the thing: I know a Republican state delegate or two in Utah, and the rumor around town is that Hatch doesn't have a whole lot of support from the conservative end of his own party.
Now, the end I speak of is obviously not going to vote for a democrat of any stripe -- these are the people who think Clinton was a communist and the entire aim of the democratic party is to abolish religion and property rights.
What *would* be ideal would be if Hatch faced a primary challenge -- and lost. Ashdown would probably still lose, but it'd be a more interesting fight. I think he ought to be quiet up until the Republican Primary is over, or appear weak in some way -- and then come out swinging.
Libertarianism is rich wolves and poor sheep playing gambler's ruin for dinner.
I know a bit about Pete from being a long time customer of his regional ISP Xmission (First and oldest and I think best in Utah). I know if you have been around for a bit you have downloaded something from mirrors.xmission .com. If you want to do more than bitch about RIAA, MPAA, DCMA, Copyright, and Patent reform. If you are constantly complaining that our elected officials are clueless about technology issues. If you complain about politicians who are too powerful and too beholden to special interests (Hach is defiantly one of the worst). Then here is your chance to actually do something. Even if you are not from utah remember that this is a US Senate race and that this position has a great deal of influence on a national scale. Please remember that this guy is going up against a monster of an incumbent(in more ways than one) and can use all the support (local or otherwise) he can get.
When hatch won the office years ago he ran with this: "What do you call someone who has been in the senate for 24 years? You call them home!".
Frank Moss (Hatch's predecessor) was in the Senate for 18 years, not 24. The point stands, though: if 18 years is too long, then what's up with 30?
I'm also a registered voter in Utah, and I'll also be voting for Ashdown in November. Between now and then, I'll also be doing other things, like putting a sticker on my car (already done), putting a button image on my web site (already done), putting a sign on my lawn once the snow melts, and, oh yes, contributing money to the campaign.
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
I have to reluctantly conclude it's time we moved on to something better than democracy in this country.
the game theory of the Prisoner's Dilemma, and the subsequent Nash Equilibriums of mutual bad behavior, predicts that over time a democratic system becomes dominated by charlatans and demagogues. A slew of associated problems that game theory would tend to predict are also evident in the conduct of elected officials: an avoidance of hard choices, the seeking of short term popularity at any cost, and so on.
All this sound and fury, Wikis included, won't lead to our country making any of the hard choices that need to be made (Peak Oil, etc). Democracy is sort of like communism, sounds good, someone had to try it, but experience is proving it just isn't good enough for a highly complex society.
I think we should make a section about how /.ers should be paid by the US government. Especially me.
This sig is neither interesting, nor humorous. Including meta-humor.
He has a myspace account as well.
http://www.myspace.com/pashdown.
Being a Democrat in Utah may be like masturbating, it's enjoyable, but it doesn't really accomplish anything. Still, that doesn't keep people from masturbating, does it?
Go Pete!
Bacon? Come on what bacon do we have in Utah? Just because my family yells at me for saying bad thing about Hatch,because he gives us the air force base(which half my family works for). Doesn't mean that that influences voting at all:). Ya I live in Utah, I've met Pete. I like him. He's working hard. The article indicates people want Hatch to leave, but Utahns will not vote democrat. At least not outside of Salt Lake(I just moved to Salt Lake, I'm fitting in much better now).
There are some long standing biases here in Utah. One is they think all democrats are baby killers and want to force gay marriages on everyone. I gave a presentation on civil liberties and invited my family. After my presentation my mother told me I was in the wrong party if I didn't trust the federal government. It's amazing how well the republicans have done at defining the democrats.
I hoping for Pete I plan to do A LOT of campainging for his, but we are going to have push hard for him.
While I agree Ashdown is taking a risk of flame wars, I commend his effort to open his campaign to the voters... who will be his constituents if he wins. His approach is very much like the delegate model of representation, as opposed to the trustee model. I have written more on this at http://www.drdigipol.com/2005/11/29/this-we-candid ate-is-wiki-good/
Tools are not strategy.