The Florida Internet Primary (D-Edition)

So the internet primary is now off and rolling in the Florida Senate race.

Kendrick Meek just launched his new Blue State Digital powered website: www.kendrickmeek.com.

 For those not acquainted with modern electoral politics, here is a rundown of what happens before the TV ads air the candidates debate, and any voting begins -- there is an "invisible primary."

This used to be exclusive to Presidential elections, but, thanks to the amount of money it costs to run for office these days, pretty much every statewide race has one. It's got three components -- fundraising, internet, and endorsements.

It seems like Meek is winning the fundraising thanks to help from Chris Korge and  Bill Clinton (he's said he raised $300,000 at that one event) -- Gelber and Burns don't have anything like that yet from reports.

Meek has the only big endorsements so far with SEIU and Miami-Dade Teachers, Gelber has Obama Florida manager Steve Schale, and Burns has none that I know of. So it looks like Meek wins again.

The internet isn't as clear now. So far here is the blow by blow on the internet:

- Kevin Burns doesn't have a website yet, and this blog is on the front page when you search for him, so he is out of the running for this right now.

- The Miami New Times did a run down of the internet primary with public stats in a poor-mans TechPresident roundup of the senate campaign, much to the chagrin of the Gelber team.

- Gelber quickly responded by beginnging to tweet the legislature. This shows real promise if he can channel Claire McCaskill AND hit Charlie hard at the same time, but so far the jury is out.

- Now Meek released what people have heard for a long time -- his new Blue State Digital built website.  The functionality isn't there yet -- but it looks like a good senate site and has the right language. and most importantly Blue State Digital who helped Barack Obama raise $500 Million online for his campaign. Last time they were in Florida, Blue State helped Rod Smith lose to Jim Davis, but this time they are working for the frontrunner.

So after all this movement how do things stack up?

Kevin Burns still doesn't have a site or an email list. So he is out for now, but never underestimate the power of the GLBT fundraising and organizing universe, and they are all online.

Kendrick Meek signed a good team, has a solid website, good Facebook outreach, has at least on supporter in the Florida netroots (Yes, I am looking at you Tally), was quick to repsond to our annoyance at SEIU with repsonses from their members, and he actually twitters too. Meek's been promising this website for a few weeks now, so he's been slow to get it going, which has left him without any email program so far. So far, he's run a completely traditional campaign, which may hamper him on the internet in the long run.

Dan Gelber has a full featured website, an email campaign, blogs himself, tweets (albeit not about the legislature so far), is spending a lot of money on ads and has clearly made it priority of what he wants to do to build his campaign. But his site looks a lot like his old one, his average donation on ActBlue is $478-  lower than before -- but not there, he seems to have more support from Howie Klien than Kenneth Quinell, and not sure a massive amount of internet ads are going to make up for a lack of true organizing.  The Gelber team has generated a lot of interest and good ideas, but so far hasn't delivered.

So who is winning the internet primary? Kendrick Meek.

How has he pulled that off so far? The expectations game. With the traditional pieces in place all Meek has to do is play to a tie on the internet. He doesn't need to win big there like Gelber or Burns does.

Dan can still be own the internet grassroots candidate, but the window is closing fast. Ask Hackett and Novick what happens when you don't have own the internet as your tool to beat the frontrunner and ask Senator Webb what happens when you do.