MyDeanPeople.com (MDP) streamlines the addition of Dean-friendly contacts.
(They can upload a VCard file to the site)

Then MDP sends those contacts an email with a link to a personalized message from the originator.

After sending their information to DFA, the respondent is invited to pledge to the campaign.

If you're inclined, please comment on this content.

Mary Mentor
123 Elm Street
Middletown, CT, 06457

January 31, 2004

Hi Fred,

I set up this form to make it easy for you to join us in taking control of politics.

We are hundreds of thousands of voters with hundreds of reasons to believe in the Howard Dean candidacy.

• We want to show the special interests that We the People can take our country back.
• Some of us have studied the real Howard Dean and learned far more than the media is saying.
• Some just want the force of the Internet to drown out broadcast politics.

Whether you support the Dean grassroots movement as a general expression of people power or you're a committed supporter who wants to reaffirm your commitment to Howard Dean's candidacy, I personally appreciate your involvement.

Sincerely,

Mary Mentor

(why I should reaffirm my commitment)

P.S.: If this doesn't make sense to you, let me know:

"I don't get it" text:

Fred,

Howard Dean has a problem: No corporate interests support his candidacy, no CEOs are raising money for him in $100K chunks and no TV networks want competition from the Internet. He left a sure thing as a Wall Street Broker to be a small town doctor. No wonder they don't get it.

Because he's a smart, experienced governor interested in what's good for people like us, there are 3 powerful forces opposed to Howard Dean's populist movement:

• The political establishment
  (including the Democratic National Committee!)
• The media, which he believes has been concentrated into too few voices
• Companies and their lobbyists, since Dean does not need them for campaign funding

For too long, large contributors and lobbyists have controlled politics by funding the TV ads that convince voters to keep electing the same kind of phony politicians. Last year, out of nowhere, voters discovered each other on the Internet and started to describe a new kind of political power: millions of voices in concert, drowning out some of the noise that the political elite puts out.

I hope you'll join our grassroots movement. Together, we can be the only special interest behind the Dean campaign. There are millions of us who hate special interests and want to send this message, and this man, to Washington, but "only" a few hundred thousand of us have formally registered with the Dean campaign.

Please take a few seconds to send your information to the Dean campaign. It doesn't mean you're a Dean zealot, but it does mean that you resent the powerful forces resisting change in Washington, and that you want to encourage leaders who listen to a new Special Interest Group:

Independent-minded American voters.

Whether you're interested in the Dean grassroots movement or a committed supporter who wants to reaffirm your commitment, I personally appreciate your involvement.

Sincerely,

Mary Mentor

(more about why to reaffirm)

[Dean Pledge Form]

Fred,

This is a little awkward for me. We have a ritual in the Dean campaign. We find lots of reasons to send little bits of money to the campaign to validate our beliefs. For us, it's like passing the collection plate or donating to the Parent's fund or tipping a little extra for outstanding service.

Our small contributions are the new money in Washington, and it's the only kind of money that doesn't stink.

The awkward part is that I'm not used to asking friends to contribute to a cause I believe in. So please do me a favor. Pretend I'm good at asking for money for a cause and that it's not awkward for me. It's not important how much we send each time, but it's important that we speak with our own dollars directly and often, because big-money interests are already sending our dollars to politicians: defense contractors and oil companies and broadcast networks and HMOs and all the rest.

Maybe all our little direct contributions will drown them out, and they'll stop spending part of their customers' money on politics. We can always hope.

Thanks,

Mary