SACRAMENTO -- The Internet and other new forms of communication played a larger role in political communication during this year's election, but a panel of experts was undecided Wednesday on whether that role will be as prominent in future election cycles.

Speaking at a luncheon for the Sacramento chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators, Mitch Zak of Randle Communications said that though Barack Obama's success in using online resources to both organize and raise funds was extraordinary, it may reflect more on the candidate than the medium.

"He was masterful using it because he was an inspiring candidate," said Zak, who usually works with Republican candidates and was part of a successful ballot measure on Nov. 4 that increased crime victims' rights. "The building blocks of a campaign are the same as they were 30 or 40 years ago."

A leading consultant to Democratic candidates and causes agreed. Roger Salazar of Acosta-Salazar LLC said that it's unlikely that Assemblyman Chuck DeVore (R-Irvine), a recently announced GOP candidate for U.S. Senate in 2010, will be able to emulate Obama's success despite stating his intention to do so.

But the Internet has changed other aspects of campaigning, said both men, joined by Michelle Smira of MMS Strategies, which worked on local races around Sacramento this year.

Salazar said that a candidate with a sophisticated Web site can easily lay out policy positions accessible at anytime, a move that's positive on two levels.

"It shows that a candidate has ideas and some substance," he said. "It's also harder for the other side to say  a candidate has no position on something. Now we nit-pick the smaller parts, like ‘How's he going to pay for it?'"

But how voters follow campaigns has also changed. Smira said she discovered during focus groups in the Sacramento mayor's race that people weren't getting information from traditional news sources, but instead from online news aggregate sites and blogs.

She also said newspaper editorial boards and reporters, with fewer resources and more financial pressures, are harder pressed to spend much time on candidates and races.

"It's really about developing those relationships with reporters," she said.

Salazar said more campaigns have also started using a media strategy online where they'll post a commercial or short film that they couldn't and wouldn't put on TV.

And campaigns are realizing that social networks are a way to reach more voters, particularly young ones, he said.

Other trends are likely to become stronger, he and Smira said. Traditional fundraising may be on the wane as more people become comfortable with donating online, Smira said, and she and Salazar both believed that donation restrictions make it more likely that future candidates will have to be able to self-finance their efforts.

Zak said the interaction between technology and campaigns is changing so fast that it's likely a new outlet will emerge and even become essential before the next campaign cycle.

"You have to keep an ear to the ground," he said.

He added that an old-fashioned truism of campaigning was as relevant as ever in the most recent cycle: Voters will be more attracted to something that feels like a cause than a campaign.

Obama's presidential campaign and both sides of Proposition 8 had that kind of feel, he noted.