MoveOn.org steps up efforts against CA recall and TX redistricting

MoveOn has no physical offices and only a half-dozen employees, but in recent months has quickly become a grassroots political force to be reckoned with. The group has generated some 200,000 e-mails opposing changes to media-ownership rules, and has helped Democratic Presidential candidate Howard Dean raise millions of dollars.

Now MoveOn has used its website to raise nearly $1 million to fund an advertising campaign designed to support 11 Democratic state senators who have spent a month in voluntary exile in Albuquerque, NM as part of an effort to thwart a Republican-backed congressional redistricting plan.

The organization took on the cause because of waning media interest, said MoveOn's organizing director Zack Exley.

The effort is part of a broader "Defending Democracy" campaign linking the Texas redistricting move with the California gubernatorial recall. MoveOn has launched a get-out-the-vote effort against the recall.

MoveOn integrates PR with its ad campaigns, often targeting political elites. "It's clear the very act of raising the funds was part of the message," said MoveOn president Wes Boyd.

This article was first published on PR Week USA

blog comments powered by Disqus