Political attacks thrive online

OLYMPIA -- In April, as Republican Dino Rossi mulled a run for Senate, Democrats pre-emptively attacked, launching a website of insinuations about his political character and ties with disgraced business pals.

Soon after DirtyDealsDino went up, Republicans and their allies developed two platforms online for targeting Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. -- MakeMurrayWorry and MuddyTennisShoes -- which plays off her political image as a "mom in tennis shoes."

And they're not the only ones under siege online this election.

State Sen. Jean Berkey, D-Everett, state Supreme Court Justice James Johnson and initiative promoter Tim Eyman of Mukilteo are the focus of opposition sites, and state Sen. Steve Hobbs, D-Lake Stevens, is targeted by two of them.

While it's hard to quantify, use of attack websites is becoming more common as voters rely increasingly on the Internet to learn about candidates. They are a cheap, easy and unchecked means of spreading information about a foe.

"It is just another moving part to the attack machine our elections are becoming," said Brooks Jackson, director of FactCheck.org, a nationally recognized project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center that evaluates accuracy of political ads.

Some sites are repositories of opposition research garnered from traditional sources, such as voting histories and court records, and digital ones, such as blog posts and viral videos. Others are simply founts of rumor, innuendo and other potentially damaging allegations.

"There are just innumerable ways now that if you've got a beef with somebody in political life you can kick and scream about the problems you have with that candidate," said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project that explores the effect of the Internet on civic and political life.

Accuracy of content is not required.

"Any visitor to these sites should just treat them like a brief from a lawyer from one side and keep in mind this lawyer doesn't need to tell the truth. There's no holds barred," Jackson said.

"In our experience, the people who put up these websites have a very tenuous connection to the facts," he said.

Click on DirtyDealsDino created by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and you'll see a slightly opened curtain emblazoned with "Let's Make A Deal." Above it is written, "This is a one-stop shop to learn about my campaign and everything I'm selling."

Its aim is insinuating shadiness in Rossi's various business relationships in the past two decades and portraying him as a political opportunist who furthers his professional career though political connections. Rossi fended off similar attacks in his failed runs for governor in 2004 and 2008.

The site's layout and content aren't much different from when it launched in early April, prompting Luke Esser, chairman of the Washington State Republican Party, to conclude: "They have their attack websites. That, to me, is good news that Democrats are already terrified."

Go to MuddyTennisShoes run by the National Republican Senatorial Committee and you are met with the headline of "When will Patty Murray stop her smear campaign?" Below that is the amount of time "since Murray's smears started," which on Saturday stood at 135 days.

This site is pretty colorless and contains mostly published accounts of the race.

Over at MakeMurrayWorry, you can view the 30-second television commercial showing a woman in muddied tennis shoes from the ankles down walking on the backside of a man, woman and child symbolizing business, families and children. This site set up by the American Action Network focuses on making Murray worry about small business though its creators hinted there could be more.

Meanwhile Hobbs is under fire on separate sites set up by the state Senate Republican Campaign Committee and one of his three primary opponents, Democrat Lillian Kaufer. Each contains sharply worded critiques of Hobbs' record.

"It just shows the ugly side of modern-day politics," the senator said. "In my race we're giving people on the left and the right a choice of how to hate me."

While he's not counterpunching in this manner, detractors of Kaufer did so via a blog page whose creator has strictly controlled access to it. There you'll find bankruptcy papers she filed for her business and other personal information.

In general, these sites tend to be visited most by those who will then spread the content along the campaign trail.

"This is just another way that the people who most care about you can find information," Rainie said. "The vast majority of those who use the sites have already made up their minds."

On BigBizBerkey, an independent political committee trying to unseat the senator, posted links to a host of bills on which they disagree with how Berkey voted.

"This provides a forum for voters that really want a lot of detail and a lot of substance," said Lisa MacLean of Moxie Media, consultant for the committee known as Stand Up For Citizens. "It doesn't cost a lot of money to communicate a lot of information."

Deploying websites is a bit of psychological warfare aimed at keeping an opponent off balance and even helping knock them out of a race.

"Using websites and Facebook pages to explore the record of candidates can have a deep and lasting impact, and is also very cost-effective," said David All, founder of the Activism, Media, and Politics Summit to be held in September in Washington, D.C.

He credited the defeat of U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, in that state's Republican primary to the "aggressive deployment" of an anti-Bennett micro site and Facebook page.

"This method empowered the activists who were already fired up against Sen. Bennett and also was effective in spreading the message about why the senator needed to be defeated," said All, one of those involved in the digital campaign against him.

Count Alex Hays, executive director of Mainstream Republicans of Washington, among those who finds no redeeming political worth in attack websites. He's managing the re-election campaign of Justice Johnson, who's the target of a site called Injustice Johnson.

"They have more value to the consultants who create them than they do the voters," he said.

Websites with bite

www.DirtyDealsDinoforsenate.com: Produced by Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee

www.MuddyTennisShoes.com: Produced by National Republican Senatorial Committee

www.MakeMurrayWorry.com: Produced by American Action Network

www.BigBizBerkey.com: Produced by Stand Up For Citizens political committee

www.HarmfulHobbs.com: Produced by Senate Republican Campaign Committee

www.AllAboutSteve.net: Produced by Lillian Kaufer, Democrat candidate

www.InjusticeJohnson.com: Produced by Impartial Justice political committee

www.Taxingtom.com: Produced by Senate Republican Campaign Committee