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'We have a crisis': Democrats at war over trove of voter data
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Democrats are at war over the party’s most precious commodity — voter data — and it’s threatening their chances of beating President Donald Trump in 2020.
The fight involves a trove of Democratic voter information splintered among state parties, outside groups and the Democratic National Committee. The DNC wants to pool all of it into one massive database that could be leveraged to the benefit of the party’s eventual presidential nominee. But state parties are accusing the national party of mounting a power grab that could enrich a handful of elite party figures.
“We have a crisis,” said Robby Mook, Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager in 2016. “Republicans are going to have a major strategic advantage over us in 2020 if we don’t fix it.”
But the DNC’s answer has provoked a fierce backlash among state parties, who have most of the ownership rights to the party’s voter file. Tensions flared at a meeting of state-based party officials here last week.
The DNC is advocating a proposal modeled on the Republican Party’s data operation. It would amass all the voter data from Democratic groups into a single, for-profit entity.
The structure has two advantages. Because the voter data firm would be set up as a private organization, it would allow Democrats to raise money for it free from campaign finance limits. The setup would also enable liberal groups to integrate the data as they gather it, instead of continuing with the balkanized system currently in place. In theory, the progressive ecosystem could then work in concert to collect more data points on each voter.
Read the rest here - https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/06/democratic-national-committee-voters-data-1045995
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Democrats are at war over the party’s most precious commodity — voter data — and it’s threatening their chances of beating President Donald Trump in 2020.
The fight involves a trove of Democratic voter information splintered among state parties, outside groups and the Democratic National Committee. The DNC wants to pool all of it into one massive database that could be leveraged to the benefit of the party’s eventual presidential nominee. But state parties are accusing the national party of mounting a power grab that could enrich a handful of elite party figures.
“We have a crisis,” said Robby Mook, Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager in 2016. “Republicans are going to have a major strategic advantage over us in 2020 if we don’t fix it.”
But the DNC’s answer has provoked a fierce backlash among state parties, who have most of the ownership rights to the party’s voter file. Tensions flared at a meeting of state-based party officials here last week.
The DNC is advocating a proposal modeled on the Republican Party’s data operation. It would amass all the voter data from Democratic groups into a single, for-profit entity.
The structure has two advantages. Because the voter data firm would be set up as a private organization, it would allow Democrats to raise money for it free from campaign finance limits. The setup would also enable liberal groups to integrate the data as they gather it, instead of continuing with the balkanized system currently in place. In theory, the progressive ecosystem could then work in concert to collect more data points on each voter.
Read the rest here - https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/06/democratic-national-committee-voters-data-1045995
