GOP Hopes to Cast Wide Net With E-Politicking Drive

The Republican Party wants to be your Internet Service Provider.

For a fee of $19.95 a month, the Republican National Committee will provide everything from e-mail access to choice negative gossip about Democrats, starting after the new year. In its bid to wire the Grand Old Party with GOPnet.com, as the service will be called, party officials say they hope to prove they are in step with the times.

“This is not your father’s Republican Party anymore,” said Larry Purpuro, deputy chief of staff for the RNC, who is spearheading the start-up. “We look at it this way. There are 260 million great Americans . . . with 82 million online right now. We do understand the new economy is here and the new political party is here as well.”

The GOP is not alone in its bid to clamber aboard the e-bandwagon. Other organizations like the AFL-CIO and the Democratic Party have considered or experimented with similar ventures.

GOPnet.com is also part of an emerging group of “vanity” service providers that allow people with common interests--everyone from college alumnae to breeders of a certain dog--to use the same ISP.

Critics contend there are legal, ethical and even practical concerns about having a political party in the Internet business. Congress is already discussing sensitive privacy and fund-raising issues regarding the Internet. And critics may target the GOP’s Internet service because it will be operated by the subsidiary of a company that has settled two fraud cases by paying more than $3 million in federal fines.

Still, Republican Party officials, who are scheduled to unveil their plans for https://www.GOPnet.com in Washington today, hope the service will be a lucrative meeting place where the party can organize and inspire members nationwide.

Starting in January, subscribers will get regular news updates from party leaders and be able to access chat rooms, “in the field” live Web broadcasts and a comprehensive political library.

Subscribers will receive daily insider campaign reports provided by National Journal’s “Hotline,” a subscription site popular with Washington politicians and the media. Purpuro said the service will choose a few articles a day from Hotline--”basically the pieces that pick on the Democrats.”

GOPnet.com will be “family friendly,” with no access to pornographic material, officials said.

The GOP hopes to use its Internet service to raise money. Like many commercial services, the technology will also allow the party to compile valuable information about its subscribers that it can use to target customized messages for fund-raising or get-out-the-vote drives.

Democrats dismiss the GOP effort.

“I think it really shows the different attempts of the two parties to use the Internet,” said Joe Andrew, chairman of the Democratic National Committee. “They’re focused on fund-raising and using the money. We’re focused on the Internet as an opportunity tool to inform people.”

Democratic Party spokesman Rick Hess said that the RNC plan is “basically old news,” and that his party had tried or launched many of the techniques the Republicans were just beginning. Democrats launched an ISP for their members during the last presidential election in 1996 but dropped it for this election cycle.

Party officials declined to explain their experience as a cyber host. But they said they expect to accomplish their online goals this year through different means.

“What we want to do is focus on providing information to people, to get them to register and out to vote on the issues,” Andrew said.

Political parties are keenly interested in developing successful Internet programs because the number of American households online--about 45 million--has more than quadrupled since the last presidential election, in 1996.

The GOP’s ISP is one part of a $5.76-million online effort that the RNC has committed to pursue for the 2000 election. Among the other tasks, the party will rewire its Washington headquarters and develop online databases.

Party officials declined to discuss the cost of the Internet service project. They hope to attract 100,000 subscribers before the party’s national convention next summer in Philadelphia. With 42 million registered Republicans nationwide and an estimated 59% of them online, Purpuro said he believes the long-term impact is enormous.

The effort is not without some risk, however.

The RNC will partner with a Provo, Utah-based Internet Service Provider, Big Planet, to operate its Web service. Big Planet is owned by Nu Skin Enterprises, which has paid more than $3 million to settle Federal Trade Commission claims of fraudulent marketing of supposed medical products.

Big Planet, which was acquired by Nu Skin this year, is marketing Nu Skin’s products online. A retired physician who heads a group called “QuackWatch” contends it still makes fraudulent claims about its products.

A Nu Skin spokesman, Larry Macfarlane, said in one case some distributors made exaggerated claims about their products and both the company and the distributors were forced to pay fines.

In a second case, also involving fraudulent claims about products, Macfarlane said the company agreed to pay a fine with no admission of wrongdoing rather than wage a costly court battle.

Travis Jacobsen, a spokesman for Big Planet, said it is among the Internet’s best providers, with the single largest network of dial-in sites in the U.S. and more than 2,600 phone numbers.

Big Planet has about 36,000 subscribers compared to about 15 million at America Online, the nation’s largest ISP.

Today’s unveiling of GOPnet comes even as the RNC’s own legal counsel acknowledges there could be daunting legal challenges while Congress wades through proposed government regulation of commercial use of the Internet, including growing concerns over protection of privacy for online consumer subscribers.

Purpuro said the GOP subscribers “will not be just customers; they will be supporters. We will have to treat them with appropriate respect.”