Following the candidates - and their money - on the Net

HELENA - Turn on your computer and log on. It's another election year, and more campaigning than ever before is being done in cyberspace.

Candidates still travel across the state to meet and greet Montanans and speak at gatherings. They continue to raise money for their campaigns at events in cities and towns. That's in addition to soliciting money by mail and dialing for dollars over the phone. These activities probably will never change.

Each election cycle, the Internet plays an even more critical role for statewide candidates and political parties. It's now a necessity for people running for statewide office to put up Web sites to get their message out and, of course, to raise money via credit cards.

Republican U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns' re-election campaign Web site went up last week at: http://www.conradburns.com/. As soon as you reach the site, Burns' initial TV ad plays. Citing his work around stockyards, Burns accuses Montana Democrats of engaging in "just a big bunch of you know what" with their TV ads tying him to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Democratic Senate candidate Jon Tester took the unusual step of running a future TV ad first on his Web site, http://testerforsenate.com. The Democrat's ad takes on the Burns ad's attempt to distance himself from Abramoff. Tester, a third-generation farmer, "knows bull when he sees it," his ad says.

Keeping with the barnyard theme, John Morrison, the other leading Democratic Senate candidate, last week launched a "Boot Burns" Web site, with a cowboy boot as its theme. It's at: http://bootburns.com. This is in addition to Morrison's regular campaign Web site at: http://www.johnmorrison.us/.

The other two Democratic Senate candidates also have Web sites. Paul Richards' site is at: http://richards2006.us/, while Clint Wilkes is at: http://clintwilkes2006.com. Republican Senate candidate Bob Kelleher has this site: http://onewest.net/~kelleher/.

In the U.S. House race, Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg hasn't put up his 2006 Web site yet. Democratic challenger Monica Lindeen has this site: http://lindeen.net/.

To get your political party's slant on things, try one of these Web sites: http://montanademocrats.org, http://mtgop.org/ or http://mtgreens.org/.

The candidate and party Web sites are, of course, highly partisan, but worth an occasional look.

The batch of Web sites listed below are ones that reporters find indispensable in researching candidates, who gave them money and where they stand on issues. I think voters will find them useful too.

Campaign finance reports are due Tuesday for U.S. Senate and House candidates. We use two outstanding Web sites to track campaign spending for federal offices such as Senate, House or president. The groups and their Web sites are: PoliticalMoneyLine at: http://www.fecinfo.com and Center for Responsive Politics at: http://opensecrets.org.

These sites categorize donations to a candidate by economic sectors bankers, lawyers, unions and so on. But you can find all sorts of fascinating information on them such as from ZIP codes they raised the most money.

For state races such as governor and legislator, a Helena-based national research group, the Institute on Money in State Politics, runs a terrific Web site at: http://www.followthemoney.org. It categorizes donations by economic and ideological sectors. Through no fault of its own, the center hasn't been able to post Montana donation information for a year after elections, rendering it useless in campaigns.

At long last, that delay should be eliminated this year because the state Political Practices Commissioner Gordy Higgins is making it possible for candidates to file their campaign reports electronically instead of by paper. That saves his office from having to re-enter all that data into computers. His office's Web site is: http://politicalpractices.mt.gov.

To see who has filed for office, check out Secretary of State Brad Johnson's Web site at: http://sos.state.mt.us.

Another Montana-based national research group, Project Vote Smart of Philipsburg, provides a great tool for voters to learn about candidates for national, congressional and state offices from all 50 states. Its Web site is: http://www.vote-smart.org.

Ethics figures to be a big issue nationally and in Montana this year. The Center for Public Integrity is the definitive source on ethics and lobbying at: http://www.publicintegrity.org.

Don't forget the Annenberg Political Fact Check, which dissects national and state political ads and claims by politicians. It takes no prisoners and its Web site is: http://www.factcheck.org/

These latter lists of Web sites generally have no partisan agenda and will help keep all of us better informed. I'll save the fast-expanding political blogs (or Web logs) for another day.

Good surfing.

Charles Johnson is chief of the Lee Newspapers State Bureau in Helena. He can be reached at (800) 525-4920 or (406) 443-4920. His e-mail address is chuck.johnson@lee.net.