Kerry, Bush crowd mailboxes, both real and cyber, in a push to win votes and funds.

By Paul Barbagallo

Earlier this year, to keep constituents energized and involved, the Kerry campaign sent out a Web-based petition castigating Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for his handling of the Abu Graib prisoner-abuse scandal in Iraq. The initiative received more than 400,000 signatures, 200,000 of which were new to JohnKerry.com.