By Zachary A. Goldfarb
Sunday, July 2, 2006; A04

Ring, buzz, vibrate: You've got a political message on your cellphone.

Sending text messages to cellphones is catching on this year as a method for reaching supporters.

On Thursday, the political action committee of former senator John Edwards (D-N.C.) went live with a messaging service. People who sign up for the One America Committee's text-messaging database receive on their phone: "Thanks 4 joining my mobile team. Please text me your name & email. Visit us @ http://oneamericacommittee.com. I'll be in touch. John."

"Senator Edwards and Mrs. Edwards are very interested in utilizing all the latest technologies to communicate with people," said Kim Rubey, Edwards's spokeswoman. "Communicating with text messages is a great way to stay in touch with people who are incredibly busy."

The technology comes from a firm called the Rights Group, which has worked on mobile phone advocacy with organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union.

"It's a very good way to increase the number of people you're in ongoing contact with," said Jed Alpert, the company's chief executive. "You can enroll at different points of contact, at live events, in print media or on the Web.

"We get response rates that are 10, 20 even 30 times what response rates are to e-mail because open rates are so high with text messaging," Alpert said.

Embattled Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) recently started using text messaging.

At a women's outreach breakfast in the Harrisburg area last month with Mary Matalin, a former adviser to Vice President Cheney, attendees were invited to join Santorum's text-message database. In response, they received: "From Keeping Women's Docs in PA to Allowing Parents the Freedom to Work from Home, Rick Santorum is Leading 4 Women. Look 4 Msgs with More Information."

"We wanted to find a way to reach some of the busiest voters. Almost everyone has a cellphone at their fingertips," said Virginia Davis, Santorum's spokeswoman. She said people who sign up will get "periodic updates on what the senator is up to."

Right now, the text-messaging feature is limited to Santorum's women's outreach efforts, but it could be expanded to other groups, such as veterans or students.

John F. Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004, has a big electronic address book -- it contains 3 million e-mail addresses -- and he hasn't been shy about using it to promote Democratic causes and to position himself for a presidential run in 2008. Now, insiders say, it's also bringing in quite a bit of money for Democrats nationwide.

Kerry insiders said reports for the quarter that ended Friday show he has given or raised nearly $10 million for Democratic candidates and committees since November 2004. That's $1.5 million in the past three months. Kerry has raised a total of $13.5 million this cycle.

Just last week, Kerry sent out an e-mail to raise money for the Senate candidacies of incumbent Maria Cantwell (Wash.), Claire McCaskill (Mo.), Rep. Sherrod Brown (Ohio) and incumbent Bob Menendez (N.J.). Kerry has given or raised $2.3 million for 18 Senate candidates and $6 million for 36 committees.

Other potential 2008 presidential candidates have also been active in giving and raising money.

Kerry's 2004 running mate, former senator John Edwards, has raised $6.5 million this cycle for fellow Democrats. He does not give funds to other committees.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) has raised and given $8 million to Democratic candidates and committees this cycle.

Former Virginia governor Mark R. Warner's Forward Together has raised $8.2 million and donated $810,000 to candidates and party committees since the political action committee was formed last year. Warner aides could not specify how much he has raised for other candidates, but he has done more than 25 events for candidates since last November.

President Bush isn't running for office this year, but candidates are doing their best to make 2006 a referendum on him.

Two new television ads have popped up in the Senate contests in Connecticut and Nebraska that feature the chief executive.

In Connecticut, businessman Ned Lamont, who is challenging Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman in an Aug. 8 Democratic primary, has launched an ad that morphs the incumbent into the president. The commercial features images of Bush paired with audio from Lieberman, creating the effect that Bush is speaking with the Connecticut Democrat's voice.

"Joe Lieberman may say he represents us, but if it talks like George Bush and acts like George Bush, it's certainly not a Connecticut Democrat," the narrator says. Lamont is hoping to capitalize on anti-Bush sentiments in the state to defeat Lieberman, one of the Democrats most closely aligned with the president.

In Nebraska, Sen. Ben Nelson (D), who is seeking reelection in Nebraska, is playing the opposite game.

In an ad that slams his GOP challenger, former Ameritrade Holding Corp. executive Pete Ricketts, the narrator says: "We know no one's more independent than Ben." Bush appears in a clip from his visit to the state in February 2005 in which he praises Nelson as "a man with whom I can work, a person who's willing to put partisanship aside to focus on what's right for America."

Since Bush uttered those words, Nelson's political team has viewed them as political gold -- essentially an endorsement of the senator's centrist politics by a president who carried the Cornhusker State with 66 percent in 2004.

Chris Cillizza, a staff writer for washingtonpost.com, contributed to this report.