Politicians search for the Web advantage
In the rough-and-tumble world of Massachusetts politics, the players have used the mainstream news media for decades to exchange jabs on everything from the state budget to school busing.
But an increasing number of bouts are being fought in cyberspace. Blogs laud and attack Governor Mitt Romney and other leading political figures, Internet message boards are used for partisan puffery, and the state Democratic and Republican party organizations employ aggressive online tactics to gain advantage.
The day Romney announced he would not seek reelection, for example, a blogger who goes by the name Ben created a new site dedicated to Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey. He calls it ''Healey is a Fraud" (healeyisafraud.blogspot.com).
''Now that Willard Mitt has decided to take himself out of the electoral picture, Healey is no longer just the Lightweight Lieutenant Governor," Ben wrote on Dec. 14. ''From this day forward she shall be known as the Lame Duck Lightweight Lieutenant Governor."
''Congratulations," he added sarcastically. ''She must be very proud."
Ben, who does not reveal his identity, is apparently the same blogger who has published a similar blog called ''Romney is a Fraud" (romneyisafraud.blogspot.com) for several years.
The blogs directed at Romney and Healey are helping fulfill a growing field of Web-based political news and commentary in Massachusetts and beyond.
Not all of them are accurate or carry new information. But such blogs and other like-minded websites, which have flourished over the past year, reflect the increasing role of the Internet in political campaigning.
Consider Wikipedia.org, an online encyclopedia that anyone can edit. Around the time of Romney's announcement, a glowing entry about Healey began to draw scrutiny from users of the site.
Until mid-December, the entry was peppered with accolades. Some of the language matched the biography on Healey's campaign website.
The entry called her a ''rising star" in the party who was ''honored with the opportunity to address" the Republican National Convention last year in New York. It went on to boast that she had ''taken on a broad range of assignments to advance the Romney Administration's reform agenda" and enjoyed a ''distinguished career" before taking office.
A Wikipedia user, sensing the bias, then flagged the Healey entry as being too favorable. The positive remarks -- it's unclear who posted them -- were eventually removed in favor of a more measured entry that stood as of yesterday.
As for Romney, his presidential aspirations have prompted friends and foes alike to take to the Web in novel ways.
One of them is 31-year-old Ann Marie Curling, a mother of four from Cadiz, Ky., who publishes a blog dedicated to getting Romney elected president in 2008 (blog.electromneyin2008.com).
Curling regularly mines the Internet for media stories on Romney, and she posts them -- with her insights on why he'd make a good president -- alongside a montage of photos of him and of the White House.
Curling, who says she has no ties to Romney, said yesterday that she has been involved with politics before and sees Romney as ''a breath of fresh air" whom she hopes to propel to Washington.
''I just want to jump on it early, because I've gotten involved in campaigns in the past and I've always gotten involved six months out," she said in a telephone interview. ''I really want to take an active role this time."
Curling, who runs a Web technology company with her husband, said she can track who visits her blog, and she reported getting a few hits a week from the governor's office.
She said she also gets visitors from the Democratic National Committee, US Senate and House offices, various federal agencies such as the Department of Justice and the Commerce Department, and from people in the important presidential primary states of South Carolina, Iowa, and New Hampshire.
About 400 miles northeast of Curling's home in Cadiz, a Republican activist in Columbus, Ohio, named Nathan Burd is leading a discussion on a
Like Curling, Burd says he has no connection with Romney. He says he simply thinks Romney should be the next commander-in-chief, and he and dozens of others debate the presidential race every day.
Last week, for example, Burd posted a Globe story reporting that the Romney administration was planning to introduce a new abstinence program in some Massachusetts schools starting next month, a move Burd said was smart ''policy-wise and politically."
''Keep on attacking him, Planned Parenthood and NARAL . . . no better way to energize to millions values voters for Mitt!" Burd wrote.
But Massachusetts Democrats aren't letting such positive publicity go unanswered.
The state Democratic Party (massdems.org) two weeks ago put out the latest in a series of online animations that take aim at Romney and his positions.
The newest one, called ''Politics Now," is a spoof on the movie ''Apocalypse Now" in which Romney, portrayed as the Martin Sheen character, is on a messianic mission to the White House.
Massachusetts Democratic Party spokeswoman Cyndi Roy said the website gets about 40,000 hits a month and that the animations are the party's way of reaching out to a demographic that gets its news and information more from the Internet than from newspapers.
''It's a way of doing it with a little bit of humor that you might not get in your typical stories," she said.
Roy said it was unclear to what degree the state party would target Romney now that he's announced he will not run for reelection. The party's attention, she said, is likely to turn to Healey, the leading Republican gubernatorial candidate.
''We'll definitely start targeting her," Roy said.
Sometimes political cyber-tactics are more about logistics than content.
Early this year, the Massachusetts Republican Party bought up four websites -- reillyforgovernor.com, tomreillyforgovernor.com, reillyforgovernor2006.com, and reillyforgovernor06.com -- to stymie Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly, a Democratic candidate for governor next year. (Reilly's campaign got around it by selecting tomreilly.org.)
Campaign websites these days can be crucial, and not only for spreading one's message. Since October, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Deval Patrick has amassed $150,000 in contributions through his website, devalpatrick.com, according to his campaign.
There are also a host of other blogs and websites devoted to party causes in the state -- on the left, for example, there's Blue Mass. Group (www.bluemassgroup.com), and on the right there's Massachusetts GOP News (www.gopnews.blog.com).
Sometimes, though, the cheerleading gives way to candor. After Romney announced his decision, one conservative blog, MassRIGHT (massright.com), fretted about Healey's chances to succeed him.
''So, unless something dramatic happens, I predict a return to total-marxist-lockdown of a Democrat [Legislature] and Governor for MA in 2006," wrote the blogger, JRP. ''God save the Commonwealth."
Scott Helman can be reached at shelman@globe.com. 
