MoveOn Grows Up

But what exactly is MoveOn?

Although it's not a formal arm of the Democratic Party -- and the group doesn't rule out endorsing and financing third-party candidates -- MoveOn has become synonymous with the party's left wing. It's not technically a lobbying group: MoveOn doesn't employ lobbyists who've mastered the ins and outs of Capitol Hill. It's more akin to an interest group, a la Emily's List, the pro-choice organization that supports like-minded female politicians, although Pariser says somewhat grandiosely, "We are not about serving our members' individual interests -- we are primarily serving a national interest." And though officials like to say that MoveOn's membership is as sizable as the NRA's, signing up to receive the group's e-mails is not the same level of commitment as paying dues to the gun rights organization.

But in an online networking era in which pols promote their e-mail lists as a symbol of their grass-roots strength, MoveOn's list is unlike any other.

The group is led by Pariser, a tall, lanky self-described computer geek, who grew up in Lincolnville, Maine, and graduated at 19 from Simon's Rock, a small liberal arts college in western Massachusetts. "Led" is a verb that Pariser would take exception to. The way he sees it, MoveOn members are in charge. "They tell us where to go. They lead us," the 27-year-old says of his organization. "It's not about having anointed leaders. It's about leveraging technology so people can help lead themselves."

He points to regular surveys that MoveOn conducts to take the pulse of its membership. One week, members deem getting a 60-seat, filibuster-proof Democratic Senate majority as a top priority. The next, eyes turn to the financial bailout plan. When MoveOn members voted to endorse Obama over Sen. Hillary Clinton days before Super Tuesday on Feb. 5, it was up to Pariser to call and tell Patti Solis Doyle, who was then Clinton's campaign manager.

At the Democratic National Convention in Denver, where MoveOn hosted a packed soiree attended by the likes of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and comedian Sarah Silverman, the group seemed part of the very establishment that it criticizes -- a charge that Pariser rejects. To the McCain campaign, Obama and MoveOn are inseparable. "It's hard for Obama to claim any pretenses of bipartisan outreach when he gladly accepts the help of partisan special-interest groups like MoveOn.org," says McCain spokesman Alex Conant.

Pariser's political activism also began with an e-mail. After the Sept. 11 attacks, he sent a note to a group of friends, urging them to contact their elected officials and ask for a restrained response to the tragedy. The e-mail turned into a petition, eventually signed by more than half a million people online. Two months later, MoveOn called with a job offer.

Guided by Pariser, MoveOn began to make its mark by raising money online -- lots of it.

"When we started MoveOn, there was this standard model of how candidates are elected. Say I'm a candidate and you're a political consultant. You put me in a room, you give me a list of rich donors to call, I make calls and raise, what, $2,000 checks. Then I hand the $2,000 checks to you. You make ads with it. You take a healthy cut. You put those ads in the air -- that's how elections are won. At no point during that process does it matter to anyone other than the rich donors what you actually stand for," Pariser says.

"There's a different model now. It was the [Howard] Dean model. It's now the Obama model. You can say things that inspire people and get lots of people to contribute just a little bit. Twenty. Fifty. Maybe, who knows, even a hundred. Then instead of being accountable to a small set of rich donors, you're accountable to a large set of everyday donors."

The money has afforded MoveOn so much pull that it's hard to find a prominent Democrat who will openly criticize the group's tactics and positions. "Elected officials don't want to offend them and lose their money, right?" says a party strategist who refused to be identified. MoveOn, he adds, "is like a big-party donor, so they get treated that way. . . . A lot of people in the party who used to have more power don't like that they are losing juice to the likes of MoveOn, but they also realize they can't have the power they have without them."

Throughout this campaign cycle, MoveOn has raised nearly $33 million and expects to hit $38 million before Election Day -- money spent buying ads for and against candidates and funding get-out-the-vote efforts. All that money has led to more influence. And to more criticism when the group stumbles.