The Bloggers' Candidate
Ron Shepston emerges from the blogosphere to conquer Orange County
More than a year ago at Canter's Deli, a group of political bloggers met to celebrate the arrival of a friend from New York City. The occasion: Their friend, Adam Lambert, was the first recommended diarist on DailyKos, a big deal on the political blog that currently boasts about a half million hits a day. All attending were regular DailyKos posters who had become friends after sharing their ideas about the Democratic Party. It was meant to be a pleasant evening, but a sore spot came up fast.
Everybody present believed in the idea of the "50-state strategy" espoused by 2004 presidential candidate Howard Dean: Campaign everywhere, and build the Democratic Party by winning elections. As progressive Democrats, each had made this idea the hub of their political platform; but nobody had announced a candidacy for the 42nd Congressional district that covers much of Orange County. Would entrenched Republican incumbent Gary Miller run unopposed again? The bloggers felt their beliefs were at stake, and an atmosphere of collective frustration hung over the celebration.
Then somebody remembered a little detail. He turned to Ron Shepston, the athlete in the crowd, the pink-faced engineer with username "canyoubeangryandstilldream," and asked a not-so-innocent question.
"Ron, don't you live in Orange?"
Tired of just typing away their concerns, the bloggers went home from the get-together with an idea that would put their political talents to the test: They would nominate one of their own. Shepston was going to run for Congress in 2008.
Their decision illustrates a trend taking shape on the Internet. Since 2002, candidates for political office have increasingly depended on online support from grassroots organizers and contributors - their netroots. Now, in 2007, candidates themselves are being culled from the Internet.
It is, according to the bloggers who comprise the Ron Shepston for Congress campaign team, unprecedented. In just five years, the blogosphere has built a résumé that reflects the extent of online participatory democracy: The netroots propelled Howard Dean to the frontlines of the Democratic nomination in 2003; the netroots announced the presidential candidacies of John Kerry and John Edwards; and the netroots gave the campaign of
Virginia Senator James Webb the winning edge.
But the blogosphere had never supplied a candidate for federal office. Like Webb, Shepston is running for Congress with the strong support of the netroots against a controversial incumbent; unlike Webb, Shepston is, as his Internet campaign team lauds, entirely "homegrown."
He's a picked a hard fight. Shepston is a Democrat running in the heavily Republican 42nd District, which encompasses parts of Orange, San Bernardino, and Los Angeles counties. Before announcing his candidacy, he was considered a medium- to high-tier blogger on DailyKos.
His campaign is managed by Greg Diamond - username "Major Danby" - a lawyer from Chicago and, at the moment, the only paid staff member. His team is a ragtag collection of enthusiastic volunteers with a flair for writing, a strong commitment to the Democratic Party, and a fondness for odd usernames such as "thereisnospoon," "hekebolos," "Shockwave," "OrangeClouds115," "occams hatchet," "dday," and "clammyc."
Two of Shepston's most ardent supporters are brothers David and Dante Atkins. Both graduated from UCLA with degrees in Latin and Greek and later founded their own research company, the Pollux Group Inc. Padding around in their comfortable apartment off the Miracle Mile, they pause thoughtfully before offering their positions in the company. David, 26, is president, and Dante, 25, is vice-president. Both are quick to dismiss the prevailing myths about bloggers.
"Our political opposition - and this comes from both entrenched Democrats and Republicans - like to perpetuate this frame of sorts that we're all young punks sitting in our mother's basement who have no political experience or professional expertise," said Dante. By contrast, for example, David Atkins (whose username, "thereisnospoon," references The Matrix) has parlayed his Internet reputation into editorships on other political community blogs and invitations to exclusive press conferences.
Last year at YearlyKos, the first DailyKos convention, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson made that mistake. Addressing the audience, he said, "I look out at all your young faces ... ." Audience members responded with outbursts asserting their actual ages. "We're old," they yelled.
According to Dante Atkins, the average age of bloggers in attendance was 40 to 50, and several of them held a different erroneous assumption - that Dante, based on his username "hekebolos," was a middle-aged woman. "Hekebolos" is an epithet, meaning "far-shooting," given by Homer to the ancient Greek god Apollo.
Wrong impressions aside, a do-it-yourself atmosphere has permeated the blogosphere after years of seeing the Internet successfully serve as a focal point for fund-raising efforts, disseminating news, and rallying around candidates. To the bloggers at Canter's that night, the next step - running for office - seemed the most logical.
"We were talking about bringing our efforts off the blog and into the real world, because there are areas around here where the Democratic Party is not visible and not effective," Dante Atkins said.
The 42nd District is one of those areas. Last year, Republican incumbent Gary Miller ran unopposed, despite allegations of corruption. In 2002, he purportedly sheltered millions of dollars in profit by claiming to the Internal Revenue Service that the city of Monrovia seized his 165-acre property by eminent domain; but a videotape of a 2000 city council meeting shows Miller pleading with the city to purchase it. Sale documents do not mention eminent domain. In 2005 and 2006, Miller again avoided paying capital gains taxes when he claimed sales of his property in Fontana were compulsory. The congressman is currently being investigated by the FBI. He has denied any wrongdoing.
"When we found out Ron lived in Gary Miller's district, we were saying, 'Well, maybe you should run against him this time,'" Dante Atkins recalled.
"[The bloggers] asked," Shepston said, "and my wife was a little bit leery. I said, 'I don't know.' But I finally talked to [Orange County Democrats Executive Director] Melahat Rafiei, and she was enthusiastic. She gave me some help, and I said, 'That's it for me. If the Democratic Party of Orange County is supporting me, it's obvious.'"
His campaign reflects the larger shift in the Democratic Party's approach, brought about by Dean's 50-state strategy.
"The party's getting better, partly due to pressure from people like us," David Atkins said, "but by and large there's still this thing where people believe, all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding, that Americans are going to be scared off if a Democratic candidate takes democratic positions on universal healthcare, the environment, the climate crisis, Social Security, or the occupation of Iraq."
Dean's strategy was contrary to the dominant Democratic practice of "triangulation," in which candidates tried to position themselves as simply being more moderate than the Republicans - and, even then, to only campaign in swing districts where winning was more likely.
The result, as David Atkins put it, is that "nobody knew what the Democratic Party stood for anymore, because we spent so long triangulating away from anything we believed in."
Orange County is a well known "red area," one that, because Miller ran unopposed in 2006, reflects the failures of old Democratic thinking. Now, Democrats run everywhere, if not to win, then at least to mobilize the Democratic community and build an infrastructure for the next election.
"The strategy is to tell the truth about Gary Miller, for one, most people don't know; to introduce the candidate as an outside alternative; and to speak truth about the issues that are facing the district," Dante Atkins said.
Shepston has one base, at least, covered. Like Republican Mitt Romney relying on his Mormon base, and like Michael Dukakis relying on his Greek base, Shepston has the netroots, which he hopes will eventually bring him mainstream attention.
"There's people who have [read my posts on DailyKos] and said, 'We want to help. We want to help. We want to help,'" said Shepston. "It's only been a week. I don't know how high it will go, or how much we can reach out, but the fact that we've got so much grassroots interest now I think will make a big difference."
Published: 08/16/2007
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