Post-Dean Phenom.

Mike Moore: Grass roots.com
By Mike Moore

OK, here's a quick math problem. You've got 183,000 people, a Web site
and a presidential candidate. Take away the candidate and what've you
got left? The answer came Wednesday night, as about three dozen Howard
Dean supporters showed up at Milwaukee's Bean Head Cafe for the monthly
session organized through something called meetup.com.

Since their beloved candidate stopped chasing the ultimate bone a
couple of weeks ago, I figured the answer to the problem would be easy:
You've got squat. Well, for a wake, this gathering seemed pretty dang
chipper. The noises emanating from the cafe's back room were whistles
and cheers, not uncontrolled sobs.

All right, so maybe you've got some good memories. A few people spoke
up and expressed their disappointment that the campaign fell short.
They got a little dark humor out of the fact Dean won his only state,
his home state of Vermont, after he'd dropped out. Still, this didn't
have the feel of a wrapup event, especially since some came for the
first time.

Everybody wanted to fight on, either through local elections or by
continuing to push their guy's positions. The real answer, then, is you
take away the candidate and you've still got a boatload of motivated
people.
Campaigns and candidates want us," said Jay Bullock, 29, of Milwaukee,
a co-host of the meetup. "We are a coveted constituency."

In fact, the politicians lined up to covet that crowd. Candidates for
Milwaukee mayor and the U.S. House of Representatives, plus proxies for
a couple others, took turns begging for votes.

How did this group, many of whom had never even handed out a flier for
a candidate, pile up so much political clout? We're talking about
ordinary people, like teachers, bailiffs, nurses, religious educators
and a few retirees.

A lot of it's due to a single Web site, meetup.com. Previously it had a
peaceful existence as a relatively unknown Web site that brought
together people with common interests who might not have ever met
otherwise. They'd join the group online, plan a time to get together
and then chill with other vampires, knitters, book readers, yoga
practitioners or whatever.

But, while those groups' membership tops out at a few thousand across
the U.S., the Dean meetups tore through that ceiling and kept going. As
of Thursday, more than 183,000 people nationwide subscribed to get
e-mails updating them on their local Dean get-togethers. Although
Racine isn't listed as an official meetup site, Bullock said events
were occasionally held here so local supporters wouldn't have to drive
as far.

"I've never been this active in a campaign before," said Rochelle
Riley, 61, who lives a couple of blocks from the Milwaukee meetup spot.
"It's really motivating to be with people in the same boat."

Fans of every candidate in sight have formed meetup groups. The
memberships of President George W. Bush and the guy he'll face, Sen.
John Kerry, should start to climb now.

Sure, the candidates do the motivating, but without a powerful tool
like the Internet, a lot of their backers would be all pumped up with
no place to go. After a while, the various meetup pages and the actual
campaigns seemed to merge. Some people at Wednesday night's Dean event
had never seen meetup.com.

Co-host Sarah Johaningsmeir, 29, of Milwaukee said they've had little
contact with the brainiacs behind the Web site.

"They definitely weren't expecting what happened," she said.

The Dean campaign dollars are absent now, but you won't find the meetup
members sulking at the knitting or Weblogging events. Johaningsmeir
remembers the early days before any campaign staffers ever set foot in
Wisconsin. Meetup members took charge, even using their own cash to
make all of the photocopies.

"It's back up to us," she said.

Whoever makes your political muscles smile, the 2004 election has
turned up a gem. You don't need a private jet to get involved. Grass
roots are growing out of your keyboard.