A Google Surge For Deeds?

As Marc noted this morning, it's a mystery how state Sen. Creigh Deeds performed so well yesterday in Northern Virginia: he was supposed to be the conservative Democrat from a rural part of the sate, snatching up votes from counties similar to his own and leaving Terry McAuliffe and Brian Moran to vie for the votes in DC's Northern Virginia suburbs.

techPresident's Nancy Schola looks at a tech theory of how that could have happened: a Google ad campaign that targeted Northern Virginia IP addresses. Ads showed up on the screens of Northern Virginia readers of The Wall Street Journal, Martha Stewart Living, and The Washington Post--ads that highlighted Deeds' endorsement from the Post, which serves the Northern VA region--and Scola asks if this might have propelled him.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2009/06/a-google-surge-for-deeds/19097/