Players

Key Players in Election Blogosphere

Pro-McCain

1. Cristi Adkins, a registered nurse from Reston, co-founded Clintons4McCain.com .
2. Diane Mantouvalos, co-creator of Hireheels.com, justsaynodeal.com. Every Sunday, Diane Mantouvalos hosts a conference call for the Just Say No Deal coalition.
3. Robin Murray, an Indianapolis therapist and social worker whose nine-minute YouTube video, "Mad as Hell/Bitch," detailed examples of sexism in the campaign and became a visual anthem for many feminists.
4. Boston area blogger Darragh Murphy, founder of Puma PAC (whose name stands for "People United Means Action")
5. Will Bower of PUMA
   1. Puma Founded by Republicans
6. Rick Davis, McCain campaign manager who is pouring McCain money into his consulting firm, link title Davis Manafort, and is also part owner of internet firm, 3eDC
   1. more on 3eDC: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/220379.php, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118515181783374359.html
7. Former Weekly Standard blogger Michael Goldfarb is Deputy Communications Director of the McCain campaign, writes The McCain Report
8. Patrick Hynes , McCain's consultant for blogger outreach, New Hampshire-based author of a conservative blog, Ankle Biting Pundits
9. Nicco Mele, webmaster of Dean for America, was approached by McCain. He is now at Harvard Kennedy School of Politics.
10. Liz Mair, former conservative blogger, featured on rightroots, who is now the Republican National Committee’s Online Communications Director, eCampaign Division. Bio
11. Jennifer Rubin, pro-McCain blogger and D.C. editor for PajamasMedia, Rubin on McCain conference call, Rubin articles in New York Observer
12. Kellie Boyle, 46, of McLean, Virginia co-founded www.hockeymomsformccain-palin.com. Boyle is a part-time public relations and marketing consulting for Arlington-based LM&O Advertising, where her husband works.
13. Soren Dayton, a DC-based political consultant. "I work on grassroots politics within the Republican party and have several other side projects." Was a former Eye on 08 blogger following 2008 GOP Primary, who went to work for the Political Dept. of McCain's campaign in January 2008, then joined New Media Strategies, then The Next Right website, and is now also blogging at RedState.com, where he posts anti-Obama coverage. Was previously owner of a software company. Used Facebook for anti-Obama campaign. Was suspended from McCain campaign after he forwarded an inflammatory anti-Obama YouTube video mashup to his private Twitter feed. Dayton's thoughts on the right blogosphere.
14. Patrick Ruffini, co-founded www.thenextright.com (sort of a GOP dailykos), served as eCampaign Director at the Republican National Committee, overseeing the Party’s online strategy for the 2006 election cycle, read more.
15. Possible sources: Contributors to website, techrepublican.com, Republican Web consultant David All ("John McCain has taken a number of steps in just the recent few months (that) help him catch up with Barack Obama," Republican Web consultant David All said. "Now is he going to surpass Barack Obama when it comes to online outreach? No, I still think there's a fundamental difference," All added. He says Obama has a more grass roots-focused, distributed campaign model.),

Pro-Obama AKA Triple O -- Obama's online operation

1. Patricia Wilson-Smith, Executive Director, Black Women for Obama
   1. “We’ve also created a website that is a clearinghouse of information about the 2008 campaign, and Senator Obama,” said Wilson-Smith. “The site is a collection of articles and op-ed pieces written by BWFO contributors, as well as multi-media and other content relevant to Obama’s campaign and the election in general.”
2. Joe Rospers, Obama campaign new media director, Blue State Digital
3. Sam Graham-Felsen, the campaign's blogger in chief, posts stories of supporters. The 27-year-old used to write for the Nation, for which he did a story on Obama's popularity among young people online. He joined the campaign shortly after that article ran.
4. Joe Trippi, an Internet consultant and longtime Democratic strategist... "Obama is "not as dependent on Web ads as McCain," Trippi said. "If you're farther behind online in terms of people creating their own Web content on your behalf, then you have to [produce] more Web ads and you have to be a little more creative." Trippi, who has been working on Democratic presidential campaigns since 1980, couldn't stress enough the effect he says online political content -- everything from voter-generated videos to candidate speeches posted on YouTube to official campaign Web ads -- will have come November: "This will be the first election where that's what influences the outcome," he said.
5. Possible sources: Online campaigning analyst Andrew Rasiej ("The reason why that large online community is so important," Rasiej said, "is because the Holy Grail of online politics is converting online energy into offline action — people voting." Rasiej says Obama's broader online base will give Democrats a richer pool of data, from cell phone numbers to e-mail addresses, when it comes to get-out-the-vote efforts before Election Day. Said Rasiej: "The data will deliver a much more efficient process to the Obama campaign for getting out the vote.")

Firms

1. McCain: LM&O Advertising, Inc. registered HOCKEYMOMSFORMCCAIN-PALIN.COM
2. McCain: 3eDC, US News and World Report, McCain expenditures to 3eDC listed here
3. McCain: CD Inc [1], see more about CD Inc in "also interesting" on Media page
4. Obama: Catalist LLC, progressive online campaigns, other clients include ACORN and SEIU