Field Notes Inside an Integrated Communications Agency

The biggest question looming in the wake of Barack Obama's historic victory is this:

What the heck is he going to do with all those email addresses?

No one knows exactly how many millions of email addresses the Obama campaign captured during his run for the presidency. But his emotional appeal to the electorate, coupled with a low-cost, instantaneous connection to millions of supporters, has the potential to fundamentally change the way public affairs is practiced in the United States.

Think about it. The U.S. House of Representatives is debating, for example, President Obama's immigration reform proposal. Congresswoman Virginia Foxx, one of Capitol Hill's most strident anti-immigrant voices, gets a half-million emails in support of Obama's plan from her own congressional district.

No industry group, trade association, non-profit entity or even political party has ever assembled such a massive public affairs asset as Obama's list. Millions on the list made the deepest investment one can make in a political campaign – they gave money. They are much more likely to heed an appeal from the new president to contact their member of Congress to urge the Change We Need.

Even an army of lobbyists can't compete with a message from a voter back in the district. The Obama administration's ability to demonstrate that the sender of the email does, indeed, live in Congresswoman Foxx's district and will, in fact, vote against her at the next election, portends a new era of grassroots public affairs.

I've been involved in political campaigns for years. In the days and weeks after Election Day, the mismatched campaign headquarters furniture is shipped off to someone's basement – or carted to the landfill. Files are dumped. And the hard-earned lessons are washed away in a sea of champagne or a trail of tears.

My prediction is the Obama campaign will be different. The campaign has been disciplined in every respect. It will find new ways to use its millions of email addresses. Count on seeing unprecedented grassroots support for the new administration's programs and in ways that no one has yet conceived. Change is on the way.