Oregon Public Broadcasting

One year ago this week, seven Democratic presidential hopefuls gathered for a debate  and found themselves answering questions posed by a snowman on Youtube.

Today, the Democrats are left with one presumptive nominee -- but the importance of Youtube and the Internet to American politics has only grown. Ethan Lindsey reports.

The Snowman in the Youtube video said he wanted to ask a question that was close to his heart.

Snowman: “Hello Democratic candidates, I've been growing concerned that global warming, the single most important issue to the Snowmen of this country, is being neglected.”

It sure seems like every election year, someone labels it the 'year of the Internet.

Kari Chisholm: “We can stop talking about the year of the Internet, and start talking about the age of the Internet.”

Kari Chisholm is a democratic Internet strategist and works on the website of Democratic Senate candidate Jeff Merkley.

Kari Chisholm: “On the day that John Kerry lost the 2004 presidential election. We didn't have Youtube. It's hard to imagine, but it's been less than 4 years that Youtube has been around, and it's already changing our politics.”

Chisholm says politicians need to look at the opportunities on the Internet beyond just the usual blogging and fundraising.

For example, supporters of Bend state Senator Ben Westlund can become 'friends' with him on the social-networking site Facebook.

The site allows the Democratic candidate for Treasurer to notify people of his travels and public schedule. On Tuesday, Ben's friends got a message from him - saying that he was excited to get the endorsement of Basic Rights Oregon.

Chisholm says it's a political lesson in a greater shift going on across the web -- called Web 2.0.

Kari Chisholm: “In Web 1.0, we all tried to build websites that were stand alone websites. If you were to do video, you produced your own video and hosted your own video. With Web 2.0, there's Youtube, which exists out there to provide that service for you.”

So, a website can display video using Youtube, track a candidate using Google Maps, and allow direct donations via an online payment system, such as ActBlue.

Democratic Senate candidate Jeff Merkley's campaign raised $420,000 over the Internet between April and June.

Lindsay Gilbride is a spokeswoman for Gordon Smith. She says the campaign has used Youtube and other web technologies to connect with younger voters, specifically.

Lindsay Gilbride: “But obviously the newest would be the social networking site like Myspace and Facebook. Obviously it's a different market on Facebook then is reading the Washingtonpost.com.”

In fact, the last time Gordon Smith ran for reelection was in 2002 -- when Facebook, Myspace, and YouTube weren't even around.