DeMint taps into power of Web

Sen. Jim DeMint

U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint is using the Internet more than ever — perhaps more than any other Senator — to mobilize voters across the country behind some of his biggest issues, such as eliminating earmarks and strengthening the border.

He knows his ability to twist arms under the Capitol dome is often limited, but if he can craft a suitable message and spread it all over the Web, then eventually bloggers, talk radio hosts and the mainstream media will get the word out in a way DeMint never could before.

DeMint said he fully understood the Web's power last year, when the odds were stacked against him after President Bush and Congressional leaders announced their immigration compromise.

DeMint attended some meetings as the bill took shape, but as he made his objections known, he stopped getting invited. The bill was unveiled on a Thursday — a time when supporters hoped it would dominate the weekend news cycle and build momentum for a quick and favorable vote the following week.

Though DeMint didn't know its details, he quickly fired off an e-mail press release, likening the compromise measure to amnesty. Within 20 minutes, Internet newsman Matt Drudge quickly posted it on the Drudge Report.

"We had something like 20,000 hits that afternoon," DeMint's state director Luke Byars recalls. "It shut down the Senate server."

"We hadn't even seen the bill yet because they didn't show it to us," DeMint said. "We put what we could get over the weekend on the Web, on the Internet and sent it to bloggers. They started taking it apart."

Talk radio then took it from there. "When these radio talk show hosts come in, they'll sit there for 30 minutes reading the blogs before they go on the air. It used to be the newspaper, but now it's the blogs," he said.

Eventually, the pressure kept building. The day of the big vote, when many still expected the immigration bill to pass, the Senate's phone system was shut down by a flood of calls.

"One of the Republican guys stood up in conference the day before this vote. He had gotten all these e-mails. He was frustrated with radio talk shows criticizing him because he said he would support it. He shook his finger at all of us and said, 'I will not be intimidated by the American people,' " DeMint recalled.

"As I was sitting there working the well during the vote, to see him walk down and vote against that bill was pretty rewarding. But it wasn't about me. We had no power. You could see that during the earmark debate. But the people, through all of this alternative media, had let people know that they weren't ready to go with this."

DeMint, a former owner of a Greenville market research company, began years ago by sending "Freedom Alert" e-mails to South Carolina voters, which gave him good feedback when he stumped around the state.

"As the use of the Internet expanded over the last several years, we just kept expanding our official Web site, putting more on it, regional stuff and got some good response there," he said.

Blogger Rob Bluey of the Heritage Foundation suggested DeMint is the most Web-savvy senator.

DeMint contrasted the immigration success with his previous frustration over Congress's inaction on President Bush's proposed Social Security reform.

"My only ability to get information out to people for my first seven or eight years in Congress or the Senate was 'Let's do a press release for the local papers.' Maybe call in to a talk show," DeMint said. "The ability to let people know and get them engaged was very limited when you're dealing with a national issue like Social Security. We just got killed by the AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) and some of those who opposed what Bush was talking about."

He recently created a new Web site — www.completethefencenow.com — to update progress on security the nation's border with Mexico. "People want to know. We're responding in a traditional marketing sense. Here's a consumer need. We're going to put this site on and let people know," he said. "I know it's frustrating for people who call our office and say 'Nothing is happening.' I don't hear anything."

Byars said the site also is a way to communicate with bloggers, who can link to it or ask DeMint's office to research questions they have about drug or sex trafficking along the border. "It's an interactive way for us to work to build support outside the dome," Byars said.

"If I don't have support outside the dome — loud and vocal support — people inside are not going to listen to me," DeMint added. "They're going to ignore me whenever they can if it's anything about changing the culture or the ways things are done. I'm almost completely dependent on the American people to help me push some things through.

"In some ways, it's been encouraging that people have been responsive and engaged. They get information and have a way to respond. They do. It's like it is a government for the people."

Reach Robert Behre at rbehre@postandcourier.com or 937-5771.