Campaign Website and Backend Database
Congressman Jim Gibbons was seeking re-election to his 5th term in the US House of Representatives representing the Nevada’s 2nd Congressional District.
The Challenge
Congressmen run every two years. Jim Gibbons needed a good looking website for 2004 and beyond. The website also needed to:
- Accept online contributions using a credit card.
- Collect information to build a list of supporters.
- Include a backend database to organize and access the collected information.
Dani Denton, of political consulting firm Jim Denton Associates, was tasked with developing a website for their client, Jim Gibbons. The campaign had already paid a web developer several thousand dollars when Dani got involved. Dissatisfaction with the design in progress, combined with the developer’s quote of an additional large sum to add backend database support and online contribution collection, sent Dani looking for an alternative solution.
Our Response to the Challenge
- Recommend our 3 column design so that photos and captions could be added to the right-hand column to focus on the 5 key messages of the campaign.
- Created a custom color scheme and header to match existing billboard graphics.
- Added an additional section to highlight Jim Gibbons’ accomplishments.
- Set up a backend database using a web-based service to provide a cost-effective solution. With a web-based service, no additional hardware was required and campaign staff could access the database from any location.
- As the campaign progressed, video clips and a photo album were added.
- Based on the maintenance schedule, regular updates were made to the website to add new press releases, news stories, endorsements, photos, etc.
