Since starting New Media Communications in his Ohio basement in January 1995, Mike Connell has built his firm into one of the leading Web designers for conservative causes and Republican politicians. That GOP business also has led to significant government accounts for GovTech Solutions, a separate online services company owned by his wife Heather.

The road to New Media's success hasn't always been smooth. But after enduring a slow start and some lean years, business has taken off. Now during the busy campaign season, Connell can fly to visit clients in Washington and around the Midwest on the six seat Piper airplane he owns.

The Internet has taken Connell on a wild ride.

In 1995, the online frontier was largely unconquered by the political set. In March of the previous year, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, U.S. Rep. Martin Hoke trumpeted his status as the first Ohio congressman with an e-mail address, which he said offered "a new way for the 10th District computer techies to take a ride on the information highway right into their congressional office in Washington." If reporters called Hoke's office then, they could have connected with his 30-year-old press secretary, Mike Connell.

Connell was an early promoter of political technology. He had made a name for himself in Republican circles by designing software for the George H. W. Bush campaign in 1988. At the end of 1994, he left Hoke's office and moved to Ohio to start New Media, with start-up funds from a Small Business Administration loan.

Selling the Internet as a political tool was tough work in the beginning. Before politicians would pay to be on it, they had to know what it was. In a July 1996 article for Campaigns & Elections magazine, Connell praised "the boldest new medium since the invention of the Gutenberg press," but conceded that "you'll be lucky if it touches as many people between now and November as a single TV or newspaper ad."

The room is packed at a Washington, D.C., conference for political consultants. They've assembled for a panel discussion entitled "Understanding the Internet In Campaigns." The speaker at the microphone begins as latecomers stand or drag chairs into the crowded room.

"My name is Bill Hillsman," he announces in a reedy voice that cuts through the chatter. "I was sent with a message for you all.

"I was sent here by the voters and I was sent here by the non-voters. And what they're here to say is that if you screw up the Internet the same way that you've screwed up television advertising, radio advertising, direct mail, those stupid phones calls — 'Hey Mom, Ted Kennedy is on the phone, he wants to talk to ya!' — they're all going to stay home. They're sick of it."

Hillsman, it seems, always has a message. The president of North Woods Advertising, he is one of the few political consultants who doesn't associate himself with a particular party. He shows an open disdain for what he calls "Election Industry Inc." — the network of parties and consultants who make their livings from campaigns.

The group he founded, Independent Voters of America, raised money on the Internet for a 2004 anti-Bush ad aimed at "independent and undecided voters in battleground states." The title of his 2004 book neatly sums up his philosophy: Run the Other Way: Fixing the Two-Party System One Campaign at a Time.

Hillsman's ad campaigns have turned heads and raised eyebrows since a series of ads helped get an unknown college professor — the late Paul Wellstone of Minnesota — elected to the U.S. Senate in 1990. One of them, "Looking for Rudy," used the hand-held camera style of director Michael Moore's documentary Roger & Me to follow Wellstone as he walked into then-Sen. Rudy Boschwitz's campaign office to challenge him to a debate (he wasn't there, or in any of the other places Wellstone looked).

To measure the impact of political consultants in presidential and congressional campaigns, the Center for Public Integrity analyzed 2003-2004 expenditures of the organizations that spend money on political campaigns.

These organizations, termed “committees” by the Federal Election Commission, exist for House, Senate and presidential candidates, as well as for political party and “527” organizations. Because they fall under Internal Revenue Service regulations, 527 groups file contribution and expenditure reports with the IRS. The others file reports with the FEC.

House, presidential, and party reports are filed electronically; their data tables were downloaded from the FEC Web site. House candidates who expect to raise or spend less than $50,000 for the whole cycle can choose not to file electronically and those paper filings were not included in the database.

Senate campaign and Senate party committees file reports on paper, so the information from these reports was typed into the database by Secure Paper Solutions of Fredericksburg, Va., an outside vendor.

In the 2004 election cycle, 527 committees had the choice of filing on paper or electronically. These filings were included in the database.

The Center targeted House and Senate candidates from the two major parties who participated in the general election. However, one filing from an Independent candidate was included because he won the election.

All reports are from the 2003-2004 election cycle (Jan. 1, 2003 through Dec. 31, 2004), the latest full cycle for which records were available. From these reports, the Center compiled a database of campaign expenditures.

Center researchers then began the process of identifying expenditures for consultants.

This identification proceeded in two, interrelated steps:

One of the most influential advertising campaigns of the 2004 election came not from a candidate, but from a group of Vietnam veterans who mounted an anti-John Kerry offensive with the help of a small set of Republican political consultants.

The group, originally named Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, held a news conference in May 2004, but it was sparsely attended.

Rick Reed, of the firm Stevens Reed Curcio & Potholm, later told University of Rhode Island communications studies professor Patrick Devlin that he went to the conference only to see his uncle Adrian Lonsdale, who was one of the veterans critical of Kerry.

For an article for the journal American Behavioral Scientist, Reed told Devlin that he was surprised that there wasn't more of a response after the news conference. "The thing that struck me was that [the Swift Boat Veterans] were not political people. … They probably had no idea that this would really shake up the political process," Reed said.

Reed began producing television ads for the group, the first of which aired in early August. Stevens Reed Curcio & Potholm already had some experience in making Democratic candidates look bad. Partner Greg Stevens was responsible for a 1988 ad featuring presidential candidate Michael Dukakis wearing an ill-fitting helmet while riding a tank. The first Swift Boat ad was edited together from interviews of the veterans criticizing Kerry, who had played up his military career at the Democratic convention only days before.

The ad was blunt, beginning with Kerry's running mate, John Edwards challenging that "if you have any question about what John Kerry is made of, just spend three minutes with the men who served with him 30 years ago," followed by a montage of veterans accusing Kerry of "lying about his record" and saying he "betrayed the men and women he served with."

With roots in Republican politics and corporate public relations, FLS-DCI and its sister companies have become a one-stop political shop. They have handled phone calls for the Bush campaign, lobbied the White House for corporate clients, and, through the separate-but-affiliated group Progress for America, lobbied the public on behalf of the White House.

During the 2004 election cycle, FLS-DCI served as telemarketers for the Bush campaign, House and Senate candidates in 23 states, taking in more than $26.9 million, according to a Center study of federal filings.[correction] In the political off-season, however, the affiliated DCI Group lobbies for corporations looking to influence politicians and the public.

The partners have a long history in politics.

Tony Feather served as executive director of the Missouri Republican Party from 1987 until 1990, when he left to manage the unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign of the state's then-Attorney General William L. Webster. The candidacy was marred by word of a federal investigation that ultimately resulted in Webster serving a two-year prison term for using state employees and equipment for his campaign. Feather went on to become Midwest Regional Coordinator for the Republican National Committee, in 1993.

Thomas J. Synhorst's background includes working on campaigns for Sen. Charles Grassley and serving as senior advisor to Sen. Bob Dole through 1996. In 1999, Feather joined Synhorst, Jeffrey T. Larson and a fourth partner, Chris Hodges, to form Feather Hodges Larson & Synhorst, later known as FLS-DCI.

These are some frequently asked questions regarding campaign consultants:

What is a consultant?

A hired professional or firm that provides inherently political services, including creative or strategic advice.

Why do candidates hire consultants?

Political consultants are hired for their expertise and experience in specialized areas needed to run a campaign, such as fundraising or advertising.

What are some of the main consulting specialties?

• Media consultants create advertisements, and buy airtime from stations and networks.
• Direct mail firms design and produce mailings to promote the candidate and solicit money.
• Polling firms survey voters on their attitudes toward issues and candidates, and run focus groups.
• Political technology firms offer services such as Web site design, online advertising, online fundraising and voter targeting services.

Why is there concern over the rising costs of running campaigns and hiring consultants?

These expenses have consequences on the political system, forcing candidates to raise money, a time consuming process that potentially makes them beholden to their donors. Since incumbents generally have an advantage raising money, potential challengers can be shut out of the system, leaving constituents limited choices.

Are political consultants hired by anyone other than candidates and their own campaign committees?

Yes. Political party committees and “527” groups also hire consultants to create campaigns opposing or supporting candidates or issues.

Below are links to profiles of selected consultants who have been prominent or cutting edge in their fields, including media, direct mail, and polling.

Maverick Media, formed in 1998 as a political consulting super-group of sorts composed of top consultants, was created for the single purpose of electing George W. Bush as president. In the 2004 election cycle it took in more than $177 million from the Bush campaign and the Republican National Committee, according to Federal Election Commission data analyzed by the Center for Public Integrity.

The leader of the group is Mark McKinnon, a former Democratic consultant who previously worked with late Texas Gov. Ann Richards and presidential hopeful Michael Dukakis, former governor of Massachusetts.

In 1996, McKinnon, who worked for the Austin-based public affairs firm Public Strategies Inc., announced his retirement from politics in a Texas Monthly article titled "The Spin Doctor is Out." In it, he described his once and future profession as one of "incredible highs, devastating lows, sometimes feeling bulletproof, sometimes feeling that all the blood had been drained out of my body. I had no idea of the toll it had taken on me mentally and spiritually until I quit."

McKinnon recounts his early history in politics, beginning with covering it for the student newspaper at the University of Texas at Austin — and how he got elected its editor: he said he won by leaking damaging information about one of his opponents to another, then "I sat back, watched them cut each other up, and coasted to victory."

He also "spent several years in Nashville working as a song-writer with Kris Kristofferson. And was wildly unsuccessful," according to his bio for Public Strategies, the Austin-based public affairs firm for which he of which he is vice-chairman.

For nearly four decades, political consultant Bob Shrum has been one the most influential voices of the Democratic Party and a populist icon for his campaigns that stressed a "people vs. the powerful" message.  

"I believe that the essence of being a Democrat is about standing up for the people," Shrum told the Boston Globe in April 2004. "You can come up with any variation of words to convey it, but from the beginning, that is what the Democratic Party is fundamentally about."

Shrum, who retired from consulting in early 2005, has worked with practically every major Democratic figure — from George McGovern to Al Gore, from Ted Kennedy to John Kerry. But, despite crafting successful media campaigns for dozens of U.S. senators, governors and big-city mayors, he has failed to help elevate a candidate to the Oval Office. 

Shrum has been a speechwriter or principal media advisor on several presidential campaigns, his last being John Kerry's unsuccessful 2004 run. His firm, Shrum, Devine & Donilon, worked on the campaign's media and advertising strategy, receiving payments worth almost $2.5 million according to the Center for Public Integrity's analysis of 2003 and 2004 Federal Election Commission records.

Shrum and another Kerry media adviser, Jim Margolis of the political consulting firm GMMB, were also involved in the formation of a consortium they named Riverfront Media, created exclusively for the campaign to produce most of Kerry's television ads and to make the media buys. Riverfront received more than $150 million in payments from the Kerry campaign and the Democratic National Committee, the Center found.