[Ecommerce] FYI Techdaily story: Democratic candidates and technology

[Manon Ress]

*Technology Daily on where democratic candidates stand regarding
technology.

Issue Of The Week: February 9, 2004*
*A Closer Look At The Democratic Field*
by Ted Leventhal <mailto:tleventhal@nationaljournal.com>

[QUOTE]
*Kerry And Edwards: Friends Of Technology?*
     Massachusetts Sen. *John Kerry* and North Carolina Sen. *John
Edwards*, viewed by many as the leading candidates in the race, are
considered friends of the tech industry. Kerry, however, has a longer
Senate voting record than Edwards on key issues, and some in the
industry are concerned by Edwards' calls for more restrictive trade
measures while on the campaign trail.
     The Information Technology Industry Council <http://www.itic.org/>
(ITI), which grades tech-related votes in Congress, gives Kerry an 83
percent lifetime rating, while Edwards' rating is 82 percent.
     On trade, Kerry voted for key trade measures in 1993, 1994 and
1999, as well as for trade-negotiating authority for President *Bush* in
2002. He missed last year's votes on U.S. trade deals with Chile and
Singapore. Edwards, who was first elected to the Senate in 1998, voted
for trade-negotiating authority for Bush when it was first considered in
the Senate. But he voted against the final trade-negotiating law and
against the trade deals with Chile and Singapore.
     Both Edwards and Kerry voted in 2001 to make the tax credit on
research and development permanent, and for the 2002 tax-cut bill. Both
voted against the call for a one-time tax reduction for U.S.
corporations that reinvested in the United States money earned by their
overseas branches. And in 2002, Kerry voted against an amendment that
would have made the now-expired moratorium on Internet-related taxes
permanent.
     Industry representatives praised Kerry as a reliable supporter.
"There are a limited number of people up there who get it when it comes
to tech, and he gets it," said *Michael Petricone*, vice president of
technology policy with the Consumer Electronics Association
<http://www.ce.org/>. He praised Kerry's positions on trade, Internet
taxes, high-speed Internet services and anti-piracy technology.
     Kerry's platform calls for making the R&D tax credit permanent and
increasing research funding for the National Science Foundation
<http://www.nsf.gov/> (NSF) and other agencies; creating a nationwide
broadband strategy; and budgeting $10 billion for advanced energy
research. He also favors more spectrum for unlicensed devices such as
Wi-Fi wireless technology, government support for universal Internet
access, the enforcement of trade laws and anti-piracy efforts.
     But lobbyists said the industry is troubled by protectionist
rhetoric from both Kerry and Edwards, as well as by a Senate bill
introduced last year by Kerry that would require operators at overseas
customer-service call centers of U.S. firms to disclose their locations.
"It is disappointing that he has felt compelled to employ some pretty
hot anti-business rhetoric during the primary but not a total surprise
considering the positions of the top tier in the primary contests," one
lobbyist said.
     Technology companies also are somewhat wary of Edwards' background
as a trial lawyer but are buoyed by his support from North Carolina's
Research Triangle Park <http://www.rtp.org/> in the Raleigh-Durham area.
     Calls to the Edwards and Kerry campaigns were not returned by press
time.

*Clark And Dean: Little-Known Entities To Techies*
     Retired Gen. *Wesley Clark* and former Vermont Gov. *Howard Dean*
are not known as well in the tech industry, though Dean rose to early
prominence in the race in large part because of his prowess at using the
Internet to raise money and rally supporters.
     Clark, who briefly served on the board of and lobbied for the
database services firm Acxiom, plans to release a position paper on
technology later this month, said *Jason Furman*, the campaign's policy
director. "The general talks about technology all the time in the
context of energy and the environment, nanotechnology, and R&D," Furman
said. "He wants to make this a central theme before the election."
     In his manufacturing plan, Clark addresses the issue of the
"offshore outsourcing" of U.S. jobs to other countries. He calls for
incentives to create jobs in the United States, for an end to tax
provisions that facilitate overseas operations, for a federal effort to
identify U.S. companies that export jobs overseas and for statistics on
outsourcing.
[SNIP]
 As for Dean, tech industry representatives in Washington praised his
ability to inspire the Democratic base, renew attention on the Internet
and information technology, and take bold and unique positions on some
tech issues. But they doubt his ability to be a viable national
candidate. "He deserves credit for igniting a fire under Democrats but
is unelectable," given his extreme positions on foreign policy and
trade, one expert argued.
     In September, Dean's campaign issued a seven-point Internet policy
in support of open access and common ownership for the global maze of
computer networks. "Dean is for preserving fair-use rights, the rights
to use content in flexible ways," Petricone said. "It was good to see a
presidential candidate prioritize these issues."
     The document urges "an honest conversation about what's real,
possible and desirable when it comes to the gift of the Internet."

[ENDOFQUOTE]

--
Manon Anne Ress
Consumer Project on Technology
www.cptech.org
PO Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
manon.ress@cptech.org, voice: 1.202.387.8030, fax: 1.202.234.5176