• by Shankar Gupta , April 18, 2005

Sen. John Kerry isn't up for re-election until 2008, but his campaign once again turned to Internet advertising last week. This time, the initiative wasn't designed to persuade people to vote for him, but to derail the nomination of John Bolton to the office of U.N. Ambassador.

On Wednesday, the same day a Senate subcommittee was originally scheduled to vote on Bolton's appointment, "Friends of John Kerry" wrapped up an online ad campaign urging voters to call Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee and ask him to vote against the confirmation.

The banner ads--geographically targeted to reach Rhode Island residents--were posted on a variety of newspaper Web sites, including that of the Providence Journal, Washington Post, USAToday, and a handful of blogs. The ads, which were funded by Kerry's political campaign, were also delivered via e-mail to hundreds of thousands of Kerry supporters in Rhode Island and the 800,000 people nationwide who signed Kerry's online petition calling for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

A representative for Chafee--seen as the pivotal swing vote in Bolton's confirmation--said the office had received "hundreds" of calls, the majority of them opposing Bolton's nomination. Chafee has said he is "leaning towards" voting in favor of confirmation. The subcommittee ultimately delayed the vote until this week.

In addition to the slew of "Call Chafee" ads that ran early last week, camps on both sides purchased search ads on Google.

Kerry, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has been one of Bolton's most vocal opponents during his confirmation battle.