After I read Adrienne Royer's latest post, "Reaching Women on the Right," I figured I'd just leave a comment. But when I started writing it out, I realized that it's worth fleshing out a bit more. So, at the risk of being a single guy without any children trying to act like I know what the heck a woman really wants (my grandpa says I never will), I want to add my two cents.

First off, all women do care about issues like illegal immigration, the War on Terror, wasteful spending, etc. I'd consider these the big ticket, stump speech issues which "move" poll numbers if the message effectively strikes the right cord.

But women, especially mommy's, also care about the very real, tangible, long tail issues that affect the lives of their family. The fact of the matter is that children are spending an increasingly large amount of their time on the Internet and parents are rightfully afraid of things in their lives which they can't control. In other words, it's the Internet, stupid.

In fact, take a look at this recent Pew Internet & American Life Project presentation presented to school psychologists at the American Psychological Association on Internet usage among families:

* 70% of American adults go online
* 93% of American teens ages 12 to 17 use the internet
* 87% of all parents online
* 73% of all families have broadband @ home
* 68% of online Americans have home broadband
* 7% of teens do not use the internet

So while a candidate stumping broadly about "education" or his wife posting recipes on her blog is great and all, what mommy's really need to hear about are the niche issues that actually matter in their modern lives.

Those issues include things like cyberbullying, privacy concerns to avert online sexual predators, and violence in video games and on TV. Let's take a look at the issue of cyberbullying a bit more closely.

The presentation I cited above includes these statistics on cyberbullying:

* 32% of online teens have been contacted online by a complete stranger.

* Teens with social networking profiles are more likely to have been contacted.
- Of teens who have been contacted, 23% say they were made scared or uncomfortable by the stranger contact.
- Girls are more likely to report feeling scared or uncomfortable.

* 32% of online teens have experience some form of online harassment, also called cyberbullying:
-Threatening messages
-Private material forwarded without permission
-Someone posting an embarrassing picture of you online
-Spreading a rumor about you online

Scary stuff. Our kids are online and their being targeted by unwanted solicitations and threats.

Unfortunately, most mommy's won't see the messages they need to see on TV at the end of the campaign because they're not big ticket, blanket issues that "move numbers." I get that. We live in a world with limited resources.

So that's where the modern media folks come in. Let us craft some language and create some web videos and then take Adrienne's advice to find smarter, more effective streams to disseminate that message through.

So how do we do this on the modern campaign trail?

When I worked as the communications director for Mike Bouchard for Michigan in 2006, one of Bouchard's top accomplishments was creating Michigan's sex offender registry as a state legislator. Our media team, Scott Howell & Company, created this solid TV spot which aired early in the campaign (before I was a part of the team), when they were in the process of introducing Mike Bouchard to Michigan voters:

Clearly this was a powerful message but it had had a very short shelf-life because it was a spot which only aired on TV.

Not on my watch. When I joined the campaign in late August, I asked for electronic copies of all of the TV spots we had run so that I could put them up on YouTube.

In one of our kitchen cabinet meetings to discuss polling, we saw that our opponent's strongest strengths were with women voters. So when I saw this video, I recognized an opportunity to try and shore up that support.

The communications team helped put together a full-fledged plan to help curb online sexual predators and we created a micro-site, MISafeSpace.com (currently offline), to help amplify Mike's plan and provide tips to parents to help keep their children safe online.

We, of course, posted Mike's video on the site alongside it.

Ultimately, we lost the race in Michigan, but it wasn't from a lack of trying really, really hard. And even then, we recognized the importance of driving targeted messages using modern techniques and avenues.

To conclude, women are just like you and me. They care about the issues that matter most to them and their families. If we're going to beat Hillary in 2008 our respective nominee needs to be out-in-front on these issues before it's too late.

A liberal blogger has filed a federal complaint against former Sen. Fred Thompson, the actor and unannounced Republican candidate for president, accusing him of violating election laws as he ponders his entry into the race.

The blogger, Lane Hudson, submitted his complaint to the Federal Election Commission on Monday saying Thompson has raised far more money than he needs to explore whether to run for president.

Federal law allows potential candidates to raise money to travel, conduct polls and pay for other expenses related to "testing the waters" for a political campaign. During that exploratory period, a potential candidate does not have to file financial reports with the FEC.

The law prohibits anyone who is "testing the waters" from hoarding the money for use during his actual campaign. Potential candidates also cannot refer to themselves as candidates, can't run ads that publicize their intention to campaign or take steps to qualify for the ballot in a primary or caucus state.

Full Article is here.

The first kind of Campaign Blog was the Candidate Issue blog. The purpose is to clearly communicate the ideas and the personality of your candidate.

The second kind of campaign challenger blog is the incumbent blog. Using a series of Google and Technorati alerts, as well as search engines like BlogPulse, the campaign searches for information the candidate delivers.

You want photos, video, and text of the incumbent speaking. You want votes the incumbent makes. You want articles they write. The goal is not to be negative, but to provide a reservoir of information for people to make their own decisions about the incumbent.

Why would you spotlight another candidate? Two reasons. First - if you create the best reservoi of information online, you will capture the eyeballs of reporters, political bloggers, and curious citizens who want to know more about your race. Using ads, and later on, contrasting your candidate blog with the incumbent blog, you can show why your candidate deserves to unseat the incumbent. You also create a reserve of stored images and video that can be used for online campaign ads. Many people speak out of both sides of their mouth, or attempt to placate audiences. When they do, you will have a place that you can go to to compare and contrast the incumbent's own words. There's no telling what will work, but by storing the information, you'll have easy access to it.

If your opponent stumbles, you'll be there to chronicle it.

Now be aware, this is not a negative blog. The writer will not be trying to catch the incumbent, or change the photos, or argue against what is said in the text. This is a storehouse of information that you can use elsewhere.

And if you start it early enough - you'll own a significant chunk of the incumbent's online profile. It is very important that you have a high PageRank site with multiple incoming links. Owning someone's else's image online is a powerful tool you'll be able to use later in the campaign.

At the end of May, the NRCC unveiled phase two of the Real Democrat Story. The site, which was first launched back in March, now includes 21 Democrat targets and new features such as web ads and a blog.

It’s our hope that The Real Blog can serve as a forum for discussing the issues that matter most to people and an opportunity to expose the broken promises and hypocrisy of Congressional Democrats. The NRCC would like to use this blog to create a two-way dialogue where folks come to participate in the process, share their thoughts and provide insights into what we at the NRCC believe is "The Real Democrat Story."

What makes this blog unique will not only be the content generated by NRCC staff and Members of Congress, but it will also feature contributors from across the country who have expressed interest in blogging on behalf of the NRCC. Already the NRCC has featured guest bloggers from Kansas, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

When we initially rolled-out the website, www.TheRealDemocratStory.com, in March, we asked people to sign-up to blog and the response was so overwhelming that we created a platform for their voices to be heard. Along with adding additional files on the Real Democrat Story, the NRCC expanded its viral marketing campaign and has sent targeted emails into each district and will run banner ads across the country. The banner ad buys, along with the emails, will reach nearly 8 million people in an effort to capture tens of thousands of additional email addresses.

The story on the expansion of the Real Democrat Story has already appeared on Drudge, and was featured on page one of the Politico.

* Josh Shultz is the New Media Director for the NRCC

Recent reports indicate that Thompson is beefing up his virtual team of advisers. In fact, it seems that most of what Thompson is doing is virtual. The question in my mind is this: will Fred "Max Headroom" Thompson come out of his Internet box?

Early leaks to the blogosphere indicated that the Thompson campaign would be radically "different" relying on Internet efforts rather than "trudging through Iowa and New Hampshire". Yesterday, the Hotline reported a gambit of internet savvy Thompson-ites including Mike Turk, Jon Henke, and William Beutler. This is a very capable team.

Obviously video will play an unprecedented role in '08 as it is no longer an option for campaigns or third parties to avoid posting video content to push message.

But here's the trick.

To post content that is worthy of voters' time.

Flooding the netwaves with clips from every campaign stop serves better your opponents, giving them something to use against you. Trust me, that's the kind of content I've been working with for years.

Besides, with raw footage people only pay attention to that which will tear you down, not build you up. And with user-generated content so greatly affecting the upcoming elections, be rest assured it's not the 50-minute speech you posted that will break through the online clutter.