The press story on the final day of the Lieberman-Lamont Democratic primary campaign may prove to be a symbol for dogged U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman’s camp from the start: cluelessness about the web.
As voters streamed to the polls in unusually high numbers Tuesday for Connecticut’s Senate Democratic primary, the Lieberman camp at first accused rival Ned Lamont’s web-savvy campaign of hacking its web site. The Lieberman campaign web site was down all day.
Lamont’s campaign and sympathetic bloggers raced to work trying to figure out why Lieberman’s site was down, since the Lieberman camp itself had no explanation.
By the time the polls closed, Lamont’s top staff blogger, Tim Tagaris (in top photo, shown at Lamont’s primary night headquarters in Meriden), reported that the Lieberman camp had messed up in how it set up its site. The site couldn’t handle the increased election day traffic.
“They use a shared server with 72 other sites. They pay their server $15 a month for 10 gigabytes. We’ve gone through more than 10 gigabytes in the last 24 hours,” Tagaris reported. The Lamont campaign pays $1,500 a month for web service.
“There have been thousands of people doing research in real time on our side to beat this back,” Tagaris said. “We had no access to their IP info. They didn’t know what happened.”
By day’s end, the Lieberman camp backed off direct accusations that Lamont had tampered with its site. Click here for more.
The Lamont campaign grew out of an effort by both local and national bloggers to field a challenger to Lieberman because of his outspoken support of the Iraq War and his support of the Republican Bush administration on issues like the nomination of Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez. Bloggers raised thousands of dollars and drew thousands of volunteers to the Lamont campaign, and produced independent videos and other material that boosted Lamont’s chances.
Meanwhile, the Lamont campaign had separate rooms and Internet access available for mainstream media and bloggers at the Four Points Sheraton in Meriden. But even there, wireless access has been fading in and out. Why? The demand. “Half the bloggers in the world are here,” remarked on Lamont staffer, throwing his arms in the air.