BOOK
John Doerr, superpower VC at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, raised his glass during a Democratic fundraiser in Atherton, California, in September and lauded Al Gore for "delivering" the China trade bill - legislation that could mean billions for the tech firms in the Kleiner Perkins fold.
It was an improbable moment in modern politics. Indeed, just five years ago all smart money would have bet against the notion that Gore, in the midst of the political race of his life, would help open China to free trade against the wishes of organized labor and bleeding hearts. And also that Doerr, the ruthless libertarian, would heap praise - and almost $300,000 - on the Democrats.
In How to Hack a Party Line, Sara Miles traces the origin of this alliance. It's a witty, character-rich piece of reportage that charts the parallel rise of high tech in California and pro-business New Democrats in Washington, DC. This happy (if sometimes stormy) convergence, Miles writes, has altered the landscape of national politics.
How to Hack details Doerr's 1997 founding of the Valley's first technology-oriented political action committee, TechNet, shaped by a jocular, cutthroat Democratic fundraiser named Wade Randlett into a centrist-Democrat funding powerhouse. Randlett helped the Nasdaq gentry envision the influence they would wield once they turned their attention to politics. While Republicans dawdled, he worked on Doerr and other tech leaders with striking success: As donations rolled in, the Liebermans, Feinsteins, and Bayhs of the Senate powwowed with techies. Suddenly, H-1B visas, a tax-free Internet, and charter schools topped the New Democrat agenda.
Though "schematically perfect," Miles writes, the tech-New Democrat marriage was soon rocked by Old Democrat constituencies - labor, trial lawyers, the Rainbow Coalition - and nearly torn apart in the clash between the Valley's change-it-now ethos and Washington's "slow, chaotic, illogical system" of politics. Miles captures a furious locking of horns between Doerr and Senator Jay Rockefeller - New Power and Old Power personified - over who should call the shots on Y2K liability legislation. Tellingly, New Power won.
With these (and other) bumps, the Democrats lost their absolute fundraising edge with the traditional constituencies, and the GOP was right there to take up the slack. Whether the tech-New Democrat alliance will survive this election cycle remains an open question. But the author makes one thing perfectly clear: Techies' political reputation for having "deep pockets and short arms" is clearly outdated. As Valley idol Marc Andreessen - who coolly invested $250,000 in the Gore campaign - told Miles: "If you think there's a lot of money in politics now, you haven't seen anything yet."
How to Hack a Party Line: The Democrats and Silicon Valley by Sara Miles: $24. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux: (888) 330 8477.
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