FRESNO -- Sen. John McCain(R) achieved a stunning political rout of Gov. George W. Bush(R) with a record-breaking $501,415 in campaign contributions through his Web site on Wednesday, the largest one-day online campaign fundraising.
     Officials at the Reagan Library Public Affairs Institute told TNT on Thursday "There is no doubt about the power of the Internet Web site in political campaign strategy. The Web site played a significant role in filling McCain's war chest in a single day." However, the latest tally has the McCain 2000 Web site picking up $1 mil since the New Hampshire victory.
     Political campaign Web sites are a fast and inexpensive method of raising a lot of political contributions in a short period of time. Bill Bradley(D) a former New Jersey senator has just disclosed his Web site has collected $1.6 million online giving him an $8.3 million advantage over his opponent Vice President Al Gore(D) who told reporters last week that he had collected $7.8 million.
     McCain's Web site success pushed his amazing Internet fundraising total to about the $2 million mark. That's nearly $275,000 more than Bush, has pulled in from the Internet.
     With a 24-7 Web site collection strategy, he reports about 17,000 visitors to his campaign Web site made secured credit card contributions to his campaign totaling a half-million dollars while only 500 people could get through to his office for telephone pledges totaling close to $90,000.
     Jesse Ventura's come from behind election to the Minnesota governorship is credited to his 24-7 online fund raising. Through his Web site Mr. Ventura created a political machine that aggressively targeted potential supporters with e-mail and press releases.
     The Internet Web site campaign office allows candidates to send out an unfiltered message to voters.
     The slick political campaign interface is being offered by Web site design firms for a 10 to 15 percent share of fundraising results.
     The Web site can clearly multiply productivity. In just minutes, one campaign volunteer is able to contact thousands of supporters. The old-fashioned political campaign would require thirty volunteers and a mass mailing. All that is now completed in thirty-seconds by one person with a modem connection to the Internet and a Campaign Web site.

     [Editor's Note: Senator McCain's Official Web site is McCain2000.com . Apparently, an earlier attempt at setting-up a Campaign HQ online ran into insurmountable technical difficulties, however.]