He who owns the data, wins.
It’s becoming a well known fact that there are two parties within the Democratic National Committee. On the one side, there is DNC Chairman Howard Dean and his Deaniacs; on the other, Hillary Clinton and a cadre of hangers-on from her husband’s administration. Both parties harbor various grievances against the other. Dean has his own ideas for what the Democratic Party should look like, while the Clinton camp believes the DNC is woefully unprepared to deal with the jaugernaut that is the Republican National Committee. Outranked in money, technology, and good ‘ol fashioned organization, Hillary’s friends believe something needs to be done, and quick. If not, the Democrats will be left with empty pockets and another term out of power. To prevent this, a former Clinton deputy chief of staff, Harold Ickes is preparing to invest massive amounts of money into a voter profiling super database which will compete with the vast amount of voter data held by Republicans. A’majority of the money for the project is being donated by George Sorros.
Officials at the Democratic National Committee think that creating a modern database is their job, and they say that a competing for-profit entity could divert energy and money that should instead be invested with the national party.
Ickes and others involved in the effort acknowledge that their activities are in part a vote of no confidence that the DNC under Chairman Howard Dean is ready to compete with Republicans on the technological front. “The Republicans have developed a cadre of people who appreciate databases and know how to use them, and we are way behind the march,” said Ickes.’
“It’s unclear what the DNC is doing. Is it going to be kept up to date?” Ickes asked, adding that out-of-date voter information is “worse than having no database at all.”
Meanwhile, the DNC will continue to move ahead in their efforts to strengthen a database they built for the 2003-2004 election year cycle. Each project is expected to cost at least $10 million dollars.
Voter data held by the RNC has been the envy of Democratic operatives for some time.
Under the direction of Bush adviser Karl Rove, the RNC and state parties repeatedly tested the voter file and different ways to contact voters to determine which were most effective at boosting turnout.
“They were smart. They came into our neighborhoods. They came into Democratic areas with very specific targeted messages to take Democratic voters away from us,” then-DNC Chairman Terence R. McAuliffe said after the 2004 contest. “They were much more sophisticated in their message delivery.”
Ickes has pulled in additional financial resources from a new group called the Democracy Alliance.
While Democratic leaders struggle to find a unifying message, a money and intelligence split is the last thing the party needs. The question is, do they have enough time? Are they willing to throw away any chance at gaining seats in congress to put all their eggs in a 2008 basket?
The suspense is intoxicating. I hope it’ll last.