High-tech lays low online in technology-charged Senate race

(CNN) -- This year's election campaigns are being waged online as well as on the streets, and the Senate race in the high-tech hothouse of Washington state is no exception. But for Democratic candidate Maria Cantwell and Republican Sen. Slade Gorton, the online strategy for covering Washington state's technology issues has been decidedly low-key.

The much-courted state has seen a great deal of presidential candidates Al Gore and George W. Bush in the last year. It has also been the focus of high-tech issues, as Microsoft (which calls Redmond, Washington, home) encounters federal litigation and Gorton loudly opposes government intervention in the tech industry. Add to this the fact that Gorton's opponent in the Senate race is a Seattle-based RealNetworks executive on leave.

One might assume high-tech issues would take center stage in this race, but not according to the candidate Web sites. The home pages for both candidates take a more generalist approach to the campaign rather than dwell on their much-publicized high-tech affiliations, placing no more emphasis on technology issues than other concerns like education, healthcare and the environment. This may reflect the diversity of active voters in Washington state.

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"We have a very large number of independent voters in the middle, but also activist contingents at both ends of the political spectrum," Joel Connelly, national correspondent for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, told CNN. "We still have left-wing traditions, plus an everybody-is-a-sell-out-but-us wing to the environmental movement. While we have low church attendance, the Christian Coalition is very influential in the state Republican Party, which is vociferously conservative."

But when the candidates do go high-tech, they exercise different tactics online. Take incumbent Sen. Slade Gorton's Web site, which capitalizes on local interest in the Microsoft antitrust case. The site posts Gorton's responses to both the ruling to break up Microsoft and reaction to the Supreme Court's decision to hand appeals to the U.S. Court of Appeals. In an age when politicos seem to thrive on vagueness, his response is not shy:

"I've said all along that this case sets a terrible precedent and opens the door to government regulation of the high-tech industry. I will repeat it again: The Clinton-Gore Administration needs to abandon its effort to destroy Microsoft and let the dynamic high-tech industry operate free from the heavy hand of government intrusion."

The site also states that "Maria Cantwell has not taken a clear position on the Microsoft prosecution." While Gorton can indeed claim he's taken an online stance on the Microsoft case, few other high-tech issues are highlighted. Instead, he uses Microsoft as a springboard for the state's generalized high-tech concerns, supporting non-government intervention as a way to continue the area's high-tech boom and "freedom to innovate."

The Cantwell site casts a wider net on high-tech concerns, attempting to persuade voters that this candidate can lead her constituents into the new economy her state contributes so heavily to. Offering commentary on a few different high-tech concerns and giving a statement on Microsoft antitrust litigation, the site also offers some home computing privacy tips straight from Cantwell, the industry insider.

And while the Microsoft statement outlines Cantwell's opposition to the Microsoft breakup and urges the federal government to exercise restraint in regulating the tech industry as a whole, it stops there. Instead, it moves on to echo Vice President Al Gore's concerns about closing the digital divide and offers specific proposals on regulating the Internet:

"I propose the following:

Click on the candidates' photos to see where they stand on high-tech issues:

Candidates use databases, mapping technology to target voters
October 31, 2000
Political portals
October 21, 2000
All the president's IT men
October 20, 2000
Reform Party online balloting thwarts hackers
August 17, 2000
Lieberman seen as boost to IT ticket
August 10, 2000

Cantwell 2000
slade2000

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