LaRosa also began leveraging his own online connections and networks on behalf of the Brown campaign. "I had personally followed some conservative bloggers, and I started commenting on their blogs, pitching the idea that Brown is the '41st vote,'" he says. "Several of them, with big [online] followings began blogging and tweeting." They also contacted mainstream media, such as conservative radio talkshow host  

"I did not have interaction with the campaign staff," LaRosa says. "I just ran with it. Lots of people like me just ran with it."

In early January, several events crystallized Brown's candidacy and brought national attention. On Jan. 5, a Rasmussen poll of likely voters found Brown trailing Coakley by only nine points, an unexpectedly narrow margin. "Rasmussen is on Twitter and that poll got spread by everybody who follows politics," LaRosa says. "Every political junkie said 'wow, this guy has a chance in the most liberal state.' They all became reporters."

On Jan. 9, Public Policy Polling, a Democratic-affiliated polling firm, that Brown was leading Coakley by one point. On Jan. 11, the Brown campaign launched a one-day effort to raise $500,000 online, a project dubbed the moneybomb.