Less Than Half of Grassroots Emails Reaching the Hill

Wash Post's Birnbaum reports on a troubling study out today by Capitol Advantage (or at least troubling to those of us who plan grassroots advocacy campaigns targeted at the Hill), showing that "six of the 10 leading companies that run Web sites that send e-mails for interest groups failed to deliver even half of those e-mails through their systems."

Birnbaum adds that, "The number of e-mails has mushroomed in part because of the now-common practice among interest groups to rally their troops via cyberspace. Generally, a lobby will send an e-mail to its most eager members, which directs them to a Web site. Once there, the members fill out a form that routes to lawmakers e-mails that advocate whatever it is the group is pressing for at the moment."