Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 2, 1994 TAG: 9410030075
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Rep. Bob Goodlatte stands almost alone among the 13 Virginians in Congress - at least when it comes to cyberpolitics.
The Roanoke Republican is one of only three (or four, depending on how you count them) Virginians on Capitol Hill to have their own e-mail addresses. Computer users in his 6th District - not to mention around the world - can send Goodlatte mail via the Internet, the global computer network.
"We're trying to keep up with the 20th century before we get to the 21st," says Goodlatte, who went online early in the summer.
Goodlatte is in the minority in the House, and not because of his political affiliation. Only 43 of 435 House members have public electronic mailboxes, according to the House Constituent Electronic Mail System.
Rep. Owen Pickett, D-Virginia Beach, is the House's other Virginian online; Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, makes use of an aide's e-mail address, although he hasn't publicized it.
Meanwhile, about 30 senators - including Virginia Sen. Charles Robb - also are on the Internet, as are a handful of congressional committees.
Members of both parties in Congress see a day when computer users will be able to pull up voting records, current versions of bills and other information, along with registering their opinions via e-mail.
The congressional foray onto the Internet is a bipartisan effort, although House Republican Whip Newt Gingrich of Georgia has tried to find a Republican advantage. He's made the pledge to put all bills under consideration online part of the campaign platform for Republican congressional candidates this fall.
Democrat Robb, meanwhile, claims to have been the first senator with his own "message board" on the Internet, where he posts his speeches and positions on various issues for anyone with a computer and a modem - the device that allows computers to talk to one another over telephone lines.
So far, though, the heralded and hyped world of cyberspace has had slow going on Capitol Hill. And it's not just because of cyberphobia.
Boucher lights up when he talks high-tech: He utters phrases such as "package switch networks" with authority. He is also one of the movers behind a now-stalled effort to rewrite the country's telecommunications laws to spur an expansion of the information highway.
Though you can e-mail his spokesman, Joe Shoemaker, you cannot reach Boucher directly on the Internet. It's not that Boucher lacks computer savvy. Instead, he and many others in Congress are wary of hackers.
A knowledgeable computer hacker could use the Internet connection to gain access to confidential files, Shoemaker says. Congressional staffs gather such information while performing constituent services, such as when investigating problems with Social Security payments.
Boucher is among a handful of representatives who are considering setting up a more secure bulletin board, where computer users could post and pick up questions and information, Shoemaker says.
The other fear on the Hill regarding e-mail is that a clever hacker could break into a congressional office's system and send out false responses to constituents, Shoemaker said.
That's why most online offices send responses via "snail mail," the old-fashioned, but more secure, U.S. Postal Service.
And then there's the out-of-district problem. Two years ago, Shoemaker worked for a West Virginia congressman who was one of the first in Congress to advertise an e-mail address. The result: Within one week, the office received 9,800 messages, all but a dozen from outside the congressional district. Apparently, the address had been posted across the country; Internet users saw it and sent canned messages, some of them "flames," which is computer jargon for an electronic diatribe, often laced with obscenities.
"You just get flamed, absolutely," Shoemaker says. That office left the Internet the next week.
Shoemaker won't have to worry about getting flamed this fall by his boss's political opponent. Tazewell mathematics professor and Republican challenger Steve Fast isn't online.
Over in the 5th District, neither Rep. L.F. Payne, D-Nelson County, nor challenger George Landrith of Albemarle County has an e-mail address. Payne is looking into it, but his staff touts an 800 number for now; Landrith just signed up for CompuServe, but isn't yet up to speed.
Both sides say they'd welcome going online if it would help to communicate with constituents. The campaign staffs of Republican Oliver North and independent Marshall Coleman also say they'd be willing to take a look at e-mail. "If that facilitates communication between Ollie and his constitutents, it's something we'd look into," says North spokesman Dan McLagan.
Goodlatte sees some utility. The House freshman, who is unopposed in November, hasn't publicized his address widely. Still, he's received hundreds of in-district messages since hooking up. "We get a few each day."
Matt McGowan, Robb's office manager, says his boss receives "a couple dozen a week" since going online a year ago.
Curiously, both Goodlatte's and Robb's office have noticed a difference between the types of mail they receive over the Internet and those that come in through the post office.
McGowan says many of Robb's e-mail correspondents "will download things" from other parts of the Internet, then send them to Robb and ask him how he reacts to a particular point made in another online posting. He doubts ordinary letter-writers would go to the same trouble, but computers make the task easier.
Goodlatte, meanwhile, says he's found e-mail correspondents adopt "a more conversational style" than constituents who sit down to draft a more conventional letter to their congressionman. Apparently, he says, they've grown accustomed to the informal "chat" functions of such popular commercial online services as CompuServe, America Online and Prodigy.
Partly for that reason, Goodlatte advises e-mail correspondents that, like his colleagues, he'll respond to their inquiries via the Postal Service.
"We were concerned the expectations might be too high, that they'd expect to hear back in 45 minutes - from me!"
Staff writers Richard Foster and Dwayne Yancey contributed to this report.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***