Move-On Becoming Poweful Lobby

Since its founding in 1998 to protest the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, MoveOn.org has grown from its founders' anger into a bottom-up organization that has inserted itself into the political process in ways large and small, using just seven paid employees working out of their homes — only one of them in Washington. This year alone, the group has mobilized hundreds of thousands of Internet-savvy Americans to protest the invasion of Iraq, fight the Federal Communications Commission's stand on media deregulation and lobby against judicial nominees.

Some political scientists say that MoveOn.org may foreshadow the next evolutionary change in American politics, a move away from one-way tools of influence like television commercials and talk radio to interactive dialogue, offering everyday people a voice in a process that once seemed beyond their reach.

Mr. Boyd and Ms. Blades, who together built a company that produced the famous flying-toaster computer screensavers, never imagined they would become so immersed in politics.

Yet drawn in by their anger over the impeachment, they turned the guest house of their hillside home in Berkeley, with a view of the Golden Gate Bridge, into the operational headquarters for MoveOn.org.

After the impeachment votes, the group formed a political action committee to defeat the House impeachment managers in the 2000 elections. After most of them won re-election, Mr. Boyd said, the couple intended to return to their previous lives, with a plan to design educational computer software.

MoveOn.org organizers say they are filling a vacuum left by the Democratic leaders. The organization's e-mail list is larger than the Democratic Party's 1.5 million and the Dean campaign's 500,000, although the Republican Party e-mail list may be greater than the three of those combined.

Terry McAuliffe, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, met Mr. Boyd in April to discuss MoveOn.org's strategies. The party has also expressed interest in buying MoveOn.org's e-mail list, an offer Mr. Boyd rejected as a violation of members' privacy.

Now MoveOn.org has decided to take on Mr. Bush on behalf of its members. In the three weeks since the MoveOn.org Voter Fund was begun, $5 million has been raised from 86,000 donors. The goal is $10 million.

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