Niche groups use Web to gain ear of '08 contenders

How did the Asian Pacific Americans for Progress – no colossus in US politics – land a conference call with the wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards?

from the May 29, 2007 edition

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APAP marvels at its intimate access

Some 65 APAP house parties, many in California, dialed in to the Elizabeth Edwards conference call earlier this month. At the small apartment here, a few guests marveled that a small group in a state unaccustomed to early primary-season attention would get a major candidate's ear. (Edwards himself had planned to do the call, but his wife filled in because of a last-minute scheduling conflict.)

"In California, you don't see candidates," said Eugene Lee, a lawyer with a legal aid group. "We don't even get phone calls. Things like this are not a substitute, but it helps make up for a lack of face-to-face time."

The menu at the house party here was cold cuts, chips, and fruit salad; the dress, T-shirts, khakis, and flip-flops. The guests were not big-money donors, just engaged young voters, many of them with social-service jobs.

APAP, which claims 7,500 members nationwide, was started in 2004 by California supporters of Howard Dean. But Curtis Chin, a founder and board member, still knows most of them only online. "Some people that I'd been working with since the Dean days, I hadn't met until early this year," he says.

In his view, the Internet's capacity to forge nationwide networks of like-minded voters – wealthy or not – is a boon for democracy. "For the longest time it was large donations, large organizations," says Mr. Chin, a screenwriter. "For our group, by pooling all of our small resources together and bringing new people into the process, we actually can have a role in this."

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