SAN DIEGO -- The Internet Age has dawned on San Diego politics in a big way.

The special mayoral race has seen an unprecedented level of "cyber-campaigning," NBC 7/39 reported.

Jerry Sanders' Web site has gotten over 1,000,000 hits and raised $35,000 in campaign donations and its latest newsletter had a "forwarding" factor of 8 to 9. Sanders' Webmasters update it on an hourly, sometimes minute-by-minute basis.

"We have been far superior to the other campaigns," said Chris Rubin, the Sanders' campaign's Webmaster. "I can say that because of all of the information that we're putting on our Web site."

But the operation has also raised concerns by sending out unsolicited e-mails. Campaign staffers said they only send one per recipient, even if he or she fails to click the "unsubscribe" option and that only a fraction of their outreach is unsolicited.

Some of the addresses come from commercial databases that track Internet activity, others from voter registration and absentee ballot forms on which the voter has listed e-mail information. And still more from Sanders supporters who have provided the addresses of friends, perhaps without their knowledge.

"I am not in favor of people signing other people up for anything," said Beth Givens, of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. " I think it's bad privacy practice. You're violating the privacy of all these other people."

Givens points out that online political mailings are exempt from provisions of the federal "can-Spam" Act. Even so, politicians whose cyber-campaigns go over-the-top with unsolicited pitches risk alienating potential voters.