How to Hack a Party Line: The Democrats and Silicon Valley. - Review - book review

How to Hack a Party Line: The Democrats and Silicon Valley by Sara Miles Farrar, Straus & Giroux. 248 pages. $24.00.

For four years, Sara Miles followed Wade Randlett around. She describes him as a "passionately centrist," young Democratic Party operative who was committed to persuading Silicon Valley that the "New Democrats" absolutely "get" the "New Economy."

In Silicon Valley, for a while there, it seemed you had only to give people stock options and the money would just grow later. The valley guys were traditionally known for having "deep pockets and short arms." When it came to political contributions and a few other things, they were clueless. "One twenty-nine-year-old software entrepreneur ... had to have Randlett clarify for him what a `primary' involved," Miles says. But soon he had them talking like insiders.

Randlett did not get as far as he hoped, but far enough for Miles to produce an interesting book about a group of businessmen who sometimes seem to feel that all of prior history was just a build-up to their I.P.O.s.

COPYRIGHT 2001 The Progressive, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group