NEWS: Indian American's 'statedemocracy' on the Net and senate?

[Frederick Noronha <fred@bytesforall.org>]

Indian American's 'statedemocracy' on the Net and senate?

By Ela Dutt, Indo-Asian News Service

New York, Mar 3 (IANS) Shukoor Ahmed practises what his technology preaches,
so the Indian-American founder and CEO of statedemocracy.com, which helps
people to reach out to government officials, plans to run for Maryland State
Senate.

In the process, he is pitting himself against Democratic incumbent Senator
Leo Green in the September 10 primary.

When he started V-Empower in 1999, he had grown tired of the "disconnect"
between elected officials and their constituents, Hyderabad-born Ahmed says.

Standing for elections from one of the poorest counties of the state, Ahmed
channelled all his experiences from his failed campaign for the Maryland
State Assembly in 1998 into V-Empower and developed statedemocracy.com.

"What statedemocracy.com does is connects you to elected officials at
federal and state level. Once you are connected, it makes communication
easier and gives you the options of sending them e-mail and feedback when
any legislation is being debated," Ahmed told IANS.

Once a user triggers an e-mail letter, Ahmed and his colleagues make sure it
reaches the right person. "For instance, if you want to send a letter saying
you want more funds to go to India, you could send it to all (officials)
from the (U.S.) president down to the state."

Statedemocracy.com also offers its services to all public officials. "The
thought was to provide an easy way to communicate between citizens and
elected officials," he says.

Ahmed plans to provide a periodic "report card" to users about how their
various elected officials did.

The site may be a few weeks old, but Ahmed says he has 1,200 registered
users.

If his ability to attract users is any measure, it might indicate his acumen
in keeping in touch with voters in Prince George's County from where he
plans to spring his campaign for state senate.

But Ahmed believes his Arab-sounding name may work against him, especially
after September 11 because anti-Muslim emotions may be higher than
otherwise.

Some 110,000 voters live in the 23rd district of Maryland, says Ahmed. His
is one of seven districts and is 56 percent minority or non-White -- 48
percent African American, two percent Asian, three percent Hispanic, and two
percent others -- and the rest whites.

Ahmed, a bachelor of science from Osmania University who worked in Saudi
Arabia from 1983 to 1987 before coming to the U.S. in 1988, has a couple of
reasons to run in the elections.

"My county and district has major issues like education. It ranks at the
bottom on several social indicators. That's an issue where I have always
felt my background in public policy helped me put together a good platform,"
Ahmed says.

He believes a majority of his constituents want public school choice. "I
have been engaging citizens on different issues. I think I have reasonable
rapport to be a viable candidate."

In 1994-1995, he says, his interest in public policy and computers came
together. "Although I was a recent immigrant, I ran for office. This is one
of the countries where people will vote for you if you have the right
solutions."

He says his ethnicity may be a problem. "But a majority of my constituents
know my name.

"This is the beauty of America, citizens would look at me as an individual,
rather than my race. There's not much I can do about it (race). I really
have to take the initiative. Otherwise I would never find out."

Ahmed considers himself a progressive and independent Democrat. He has been
a member of the steering committee (Prince George's County) for Kathleen
Townsend Kennedy for Governor of Maryland 2002 and candidate for Maryland
House of Delegates 1998 among other things.

He built his dot.com company from scratch and expects to market it
state-by-state. Already, he notes Washington State and New Mexico state
legislators are directing constituents to his site.

Statedemocracy.com has 51 domains -- one for each state and one for the
District of Columbia and they run like nydemocracy.com or pademocracy.com.
Ahmed bought the domain two years ago in 1999, when he figured the Internet
was the tool of the future for democracy.

There have been competitors. While he was developing the technology for
statedemocracy, three competitors emerged -- voter.com, speakout.com and
grassroots.com. Of the three, voter.com closed down operations in February
2001 and is believed to have burnt many millions before going down.

"We had near death experiences in the last two years. Those have
strengthened us to deal with market uncertainties and survive and become
profitable," he says.

A "lifelong political junky," Ahmed says: "I always felt politics was an
area where a lot of minorities look at the daunting task and just shy away."

Armed with an American University, Washington, D.C. masters in public
policy, his past political experience and technology background, plus a
passion to make things better, Ahmed believes he has all the ingredients for
public service.

"At the end of it the only loss I can see is of money and time, and if I
lose, I may lose because of the power of incumbency," says Ahmed who has
been married to Nabeela Ahmed 14 years. They have two daughters -- Raaheela,
8, and Shabnam, 6.

--Indo-Asian News Service