Online fundraising and geekery in political campaigns. In KANSAS?

[matgb]

Normally when I think of Kansas politics I think of things like evolution being banned in schools or those silly stickers they tried, but this is a refreshing change; an interesting and innovative use of the internet by a USian running for the Kansas state legislature and raising funds through an XKCD style webcomic. It's attracting reasonable coverage in the US media, including a fairly favourable write up in the LA Times, and he's getting record numbers of donations.

full comic / larger version

The nature of US politics makes it very different to directly translate fundraising techniques to the UK, even if it's appropriate, our focus on parties within a multi-party polity is very different to their focus on individuals within a two-party system (even if in most districts we have an effective two-party system anyway, gotta love Duverger), but this sort of thing is certainly going to appeal to the sort of demographic that should be voting Lib Dem anyway—wonder if anyone could come up with a more generalised UK version with a similar sort of message?

Comments

[baseballchica03.livejournal.com]

Haha, I posted a link to this last week because it made me laugh so hard. It's funny because it's SO incredibly reflective of how the system works over here.

I think whether you're voting for a party or a candidate the principle would be the same. Howard Dean is really the one who kick started the idea over here of small donations over the internet rather than $5,000 per plate dinners from large donors just raking in the cash. Because you might not be able to afford to give a lot, even $25, what with gas climbing and no public transport to speak of. But $10 might be doable. So, you know, start up a "donate $20.08 to the LibDems" movement. Well, $20.08 is a lot more in pounds than dollars, but you get the idea. Pick a number that seems like it'll resonate with people for whatever reason, and the principle should be the same.