Many political ads online, but who sees them?

By Jonathan Martin

Seattle Times staff reporter


In this YouTube video supporting Dave Reichert, a Democrat tries to block a Republican from taping Darcy Burner at a campaign event.


The most clever local political ad you've probably never seen started with a couple of ticked-off musicians in North Carolina.

In August, members of the defunct band Squirrel Nut Zippers cut a catchy tune — "Have You Had Enough?" — in hopes of helping progressive candidates. The song took on a life of its own, passing among bloggers across the country until it became the basis for an ad targeting incumbent Republicans.

Last month, a version aimed at U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Auburn, was posted on YouTube.com by a supporter of his opponent. It is the kind of parody rarely seen in grim network TV ads, with vintage cartoon images and swinging trumpet riffs.

Despite the effort, it's been viewed all of 2,081 times.

That's the rub with the growing phenomenon this campaign season of Internet video sites like YouTube. No matter how witty or provocative, political ads on the Web are — at least for now — largely an inside joke among political junkies.

"I think the jury is still out on their ultimate effectiveness in actually generating votes," said Randy Pepple, a former GOP campaign manager and CEO of Rockey Hill & Knowlton, a public-relations firm in Seattle. "They have had some results generating money. But we haven't seen them generate votes."

That has not stopped candidates and their supporters in the most-contested local races from posting videos, including Democratic incumbent Maria Cantwell and Republican Mike McGavick in the U.S. Senate, and Reichert and his Democratic opponent, Darcy Burner, for the Eastside congressional seat. Everything from homemade hit pieces to banal stump speeches to candidates' gaffes is up for viewing on the Web.

What creators of those videos want, said Peter Mitchell of the boutique ad agency Mercury Seattle, is for them to go "viral." That happens when a video fills e-mail boxes across the country like a contagion.

In 2005, a cartoon parody of President Bush at JibJab.com went viral, with 2 million views within two weeks. Video of Sen. George Allen, R-Va., calling an opponent's campaign volunteer "macaca" — the name of an African monkey — has been seen more than 250,000 times since he made the remark this summer.

"I absolutely think the viral stuff is where you will change people's opinion," Mitchell said. "If you are sitting in your living room and see a mudslinging ad on TV, you can say, 'It's only political people.' When something goes viral, it will come to you from a friend."

His firm, working on behalf of Seattle City Council candidate Richard McIver last year, built a Web site poking fun at McIver's opponent, Dwight Pelz. The site (www.whatwilldwightdonext.com) featured a Magic 8 ball; each click spit out a new race that Pelz, now chairman of the state Democratic Party, had considered entering. McIver won the race.

The site wasn't seen very many times, but it was seen by "the right people" in political circles, Mitchell said. "I wouldn't measure success in the number of hits and megabits. Success is whether you changed the debate, whether you changed the discussion."

The "macaca" episode — with Allen using the term to describe the volunteer of Indian descent — has shown the potency of the gotcha video.

Reichert supporters recently posted on YouTube video of a silly dance between a Republican trying to tape Burner at a campaign event and a Democrat holding a piece of paper in front of the lens. That video, however, has been seen less than 1,000 times.

Political blogs are the most common source for turning a video viral, but bloggers acknowledge that most of their readers are already political insiders.

It won't be until campaigns can send e-mails to narrowly focused groups — such as all the independent voters in the Reichert-Burner race — that Web videos will really take off, said John Wyble of Moxie Media, a left-leaning political consulting group in Seattle.

"It's one thing to have political insiders looking at these. It's another for it to become viral and penetrate down to swing voters," he said.

Even if they are not yet critical to campaigns, Web sites such as YouTube and Google Video are repositories of political ingenuity. An ad by Yvonne Ward, a Democrat in Auburn running for the state Senate, replicates the legendary Rainier beer motorcycle ad, with the candidate on her bike.

The ad using the Squirrel Nut Zippers' "Have You Had Enough?" has been such a hit that it has been recut for about 18 races across the country. In it, cartoons are spliced with images from an old Dwight Eisenhower commercial while singer Rickie Lee Jones urges voters to "throw the rascals out."

Andrew Tsao, a network TV director in Bellevue and a Burner supporter, posted it on YouTube last month after asking bloggers for a copy tailor-made for Reichert. "Any campaign in America today that does not pay very careful attention to the use of viral media does so at their own peril," Tsao said.

On that point, Tsao and Republican campaign strategist J. Vander Stoep, an adviser to McGavick's campaign, can agree.

"There's going to come a day when ... it will be demonstrated that campaigns' actions on the Web are decisive," Vander Stoep said. "Is it this year? Nobody knows. Talk to me after the

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Prewrite:
I believe that the article above has a great meaning to it. Political imagination has a strong affect on many people. I think that after Mary's class, I will be able to understand the topic much better.

Postwrite:
I feel that after Mary's seminar today that I have a better understanding about Political Imagination now. The reason for this is because when I had went into the classroom, I thought that Political imagination was the government trying to change us, but it is actually about the certain political candidates running for election through other forms of creative and influencing tactics. For instance, the article above shows how people run for election, and get people to notice them, is by getting in touch with people through the internet. Which is a great example of political imagination.

Application:
The way that I use Political imagination in life could probably be at PSEC is probably by giving ideas, for instance, giving ideas during a class would help with political imagination because it will help the class as a whole, rather than just one person.

Entry of the week:
Negotiation
My mom came into my room and told me to clean up my room. This is when the negotiation began. I asked her "why?", and all she could reply was "your room is dirty". I dont think that having a piece of paper which is on my desk because I need it for homework would make my room dirty. She began yelling at me and telling me how i never listen to her. I remind her how she never checks my other brothers rooms and always puts the blame and all of her frustration on me. So I just told her to go away, and of course, she did, because she knew there is no way of beating me. This is a win lose situation, where I dont need to clean up my room, and she can go force her frustration on something else other than me.

Spokane diocese to sell bishop's office to pay sex-abuse claims

By JOHN K. WILEY

The Associated Press

SPOKANE, Wash. – Hoping to emerge from bankruptcy protection by the end of this year, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane is selling its bishop's office building to raise money to pay victims of clergy sex abuse.

A telephone auction is scheduled for Wednesday after three parties met the minimum offer of $1.7 million for the 28,968-square-foot Pastoral Center downtown, Keen Realty Vice President Michael Mattlat said Monday from his office in Great Neck, N.Y.

A vacant 3-acre parcel owned by the diocese in Spokane Valley, west of Spokane, also will be sold, said Mattlat, whose company specializes in representing companies in bankruptcy.

Proceeds from the sale will go to a fund to pay claims of people sexually abused by priests or other clergy. About 150 people have filed such claims against the diocese.

The Pastoral Center, also known as the Chancery, is among $11 million in assets the diocese claimed when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December 2004, citing more than $81 million in claims, mostly by abuse victims.

The bankruptcy proceeding is currently in mediation. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Patricia C. Williams said she wants to approve a reorganization plan that includes payments to victims by early January.

Spokane is one of three U.S. Catholic dioceses that have filed for bankruptcy protection because of the abuse crisis. Bishop William Skylstad has said the diocese can raise between $30 million and $35 million from insurance settlements and sales of property, including the diocesan business office.

Skylstad, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, is among those named in bankruptcy claims as an abuser. Skylstad has denied the claim that he sexually abused a young woman in the 1960s. An attorney hired by the woman declined to pursue the case and an investigator hired by the bishop found the allegation was not credible.

A federal judge ruled in June that $80 million in churches, schools and other properties in the Eastern Washington diocese cannot be sold by the bishop to satisfy creditors, who are mostly people who claim they were abused by priests and other clergy.

Lawyers representing the abuse victims said they would consider suing individual parishes. The 90,000-member diocese has 82 parishes in 13 Eastern Washington counties.

The three-story Pastoral Center on West Riverside Avenue was built in 1910 and has served as a general office building for the diocese.

Church representatives have said they hoped a "Catholic-friendly" buyer would purchase the building, then consider leasing it back to the diocese. Mattlat said he was "not at liberty" to say who the prospective bidders were, or what their plans are for the building.

Spokesman Deacon Eric Meisfjord said the diocese has no plan yet for housing its business offices. "I suppose that would depend on who the building is sold to," he said.

The diocese also wants to sell a 92-acre parcel of land near Medical Lake, west of the city, that is listed at $1.5 million. That parcel won't be part of Wednesday's auction because no one made an initial offer, Keen said. That property remains on the market.

Copyright © 2006 The Seattle Times Company

Prewrite:
I feel that the this mediation shows how people can work things out through diffrent parties, even if it had not been government. For instance, in this one, the parties are the Church (bishop) who wants to sell his land (to another party) so that they can help pay for their crime which they have commited (of sexually abuse), which is a good example of mediation.

Postwrite:
After Mary's class, I have learned a lot because she had explained to us what mediation is. Mediation is when 2 parties are having a negotiation, and a neutral party is the one that controls the conversation. This helped me understand the article more after reading it.

Application:
The way that I apply mediation to my life could probably be when me and my brother get into an argument. My mom is usually probably the one that listens to both sides and figures out a way to solve the problem and have both of us satisfied.

Two arrested in Fremont after standoff with police

The Associated Press

Officers arrested a man and woman today following a standoff with the woman who police said fired a shotgun out an apartment window while the two were struggling over the gun.

The 33-year-old Seattle woman was arrested and taken to the King County Jail for investigation of assault. The man was also booked on the same charge, Seattle police spokesman Rich Pruitt said. Their identities were not released.

No one was injured.

The standoff began when neighbors in the city's Fremont area reported hearing a single gunshot around 6:30 a.m. Responding officers found "that a suspect had shot one round from a shotgun out a window," Pruitt said.

Residents of the building were evacuated. Two people were taken out of the apartment but a woman remained inside and "disappeared from officers' view," Pruitt said.

At that point, Seattle SWAT and a hostage negotiation team were called in to talk the woman out, he said.

Around 11 a.m., after the woman did not respond to attempts to contact her, the SWAT team was able to enter the apartment and she was arrested without further incident, Pruitt said.

"The two were in some type of disturbance and fight and actually fought over the shotgun," he said. "At one point she got a hold of it and took one shot out the window."

Officers had been called to the residence earlier in the morning and asked the group to turn down their stereo, Pruitt said. "They did comply and it was quiet when officers left."

Copyright © 2005 The Seattle Times Company

Prewrite:
I feel what these people did was bad because they did not listen to the cops, which led them to be arrested. Next time, if an official negociates with you, you need to talk back so that they know that everything is under control, and that everyone is safe and etc.

Post-write:
I feel that these people deserved to be arrested, the reason why is because these people had created a domestic disturbance. Police had tried to negotiate with these two people, although the male had came out, the female still stayed inside. The negotiators had tried to get her out without her getting hurt. Finally, they both were arrested because they did not comply to the police while negotiation. This is called a Win-Lose situation because the police did their job (to serve and protect, which means they had won). The two people had been arrested for not complying to the police which means they were the losers.

Application:
The way that negotiations affect my life as a PSEC student is for instance, when someone gets in an argument, like a secretic seminar when we have a strong conversation, we usually end up getting into an argument. Negotiation helps us by having someone control the conversation, which is a negotiation, where everyone is happy with what they get.