You've Got Mail
     E-mail flooded House and Senate in-boxes during congressional impeachment proceedings, clogging the system to a standstill, but has subsided since, according to the House Administration Committee. But while e-mail is manageable for most offices now, the committee is looking at ways to help members adapt for the future when electronic communication becomes more commonplace.
     "In the information age, when it becomes easier to send mail, what happens?" a committee spokesman asked. "With the limited budgets we have, it could be tough to keep up with the demand."
     Cornfield said that e-advocates would serve their interests by helping lawmakers find a way to manage e-mail before flooding them with it.
     "The mindset on Capitol Hill is, 'This is a nuisance'," he said. "If I were these organizations, I would use e-mail to mobilize my troops, but at the point of mobilization, I'd use telegrams, phone calls or faxes."

It's Cheaper Than A Stamp
     A number of Washington-area businesses are banking on the public's acceptance of e-mail, knowing lawmakers can't afford to ignore messages sent from the home district.
     Juno Advocacy Network, the Washington-based arm of free e-mail provider Juno Online Services, sells its ability to target specific demographic groups to advocates looking to lobby Congress or federal agencies on specific issues.
     Juno subscribers agree to view advertising in exchange for free e-mail service. The advocacy network uses specific demographic information collected from its 7 million subscribers to target ads down to specific congressional districts for lobbying campaigns.
     One recent Juno effort, on behalf of the Heritage Forest Campaign, flooded Vice President Gore's office with 171,000 e-mails, complete with names and home addresses. And for about $40,000, the National Education Association was able to generate 20,000 e-mails to House members last year in a campaign to save the e-rate, a much higher rate of return than on a direct mail campaign, a former NEA lobbyist said.
     "When you need this sort of massive outreach and you need to do it quickly. Right now we're the only service," said Roger Stone, director of Juno's Advocacy Network. "Targeting is important in commercial advertising, but it's key in politics."

Roots Strong In Cyberspace
     Stone said that advocacy campaigns, which let constituents send form letters directly to their lawmakers, cover the ideological spectrum, but their more conservative clients ask that they not be identified.
     Pam Fielding, a principal with e-advocates, spearheaded the NEA campaign when she was the union's "cyberlobbyist." She is now applying that experience in her new start-up, a subsidiary of Capitol Advantage, a Washington-based firm that provides the technical infrastructure for electronic lobbying.
     "Grass roots advocacy is alive and well in cyberspace, where folks have had trouble energizing people on the ground," Fielding said. "We are seeing a different level of activism online."
     Daniel Bennett, also a principal at e-advocates, said allowing constituents to contact their representatives more quickly is a boost to the Democratic process. Bennett knows the impact of constituent e-mail first-hand. Prior to his advocacy work, he served as technology liaison for Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-CA.
     "It's going to force members of Congress to improve, to better represent, and to be more capable of providing good reasons for why they vote," he said.

Wired By The People, For The People
     Fielding said she doesn't expect e-mail to replace personal visits with lawmakers, but said there's an advantage being able to "sit in your jammies at 11 at night and fire off a message to your representative."
     "The more involved we get constituents in the process, the more educated they will become," she said.
     Don Baptiste, founder and CEO of USADemocracy.com, leaves the advocacy up to individual constituents in what he calls "sort of unorganized grass roots."
     USADemocracy.com allows individuals to vote on specific bills, send their votes to their lawmaker via e-mail, and compare how often their lawmakers votes with them on an issue. Baptiste has been developing the site for two years and launched it last month. So far, the site, supported by advertising, has 6,000 subscribers.
     Baptiste said he hopes the site will pique individuals' interest in the political process, and ultimately get them to the polls better informed.
     "I'm interested in politics, but I'm not an activist," he said. "The idea was for the average person to communicate with Congress. Without the technology of the Internet, this wouldn't be possible."
     Jonah Seiger, co-founder of mindshare Internet Campaigns, said e-mail is good for organizing a group, but not the most effective way to send a message to Congress.
     "The political process happens in the real world," he said. "It's about votes, it's about hearings, it's about press coverage. We emphasize online organizing for offline action."
—by Rebecca Weiner