Both times Barack Obama ran for President,his campaign compiled an extremely sophisticated database of the electorate, enabling them to target potential supporters very precisely. This was a major weapon in his arsenal. Now this database is presumably property of the Democratic Party. But will all primary candidates have access to it? I frankly suspect that Clinton will and that Biden, should he run, will too. Sanders? I very much doubt it without a lot of pressure. I can’t think of a reasonable justification for the party to pick favorites in this way and find it almost impossible to think they will not, at least if they can get away with it. Does anyone have any inside info on this?
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No inside information, but here’s how I understand it. That sophisticated voter targeting was done during the 2012 general election. And the database was stored at the DNC. For all practical purposes, the DNC ran the analytics. It should be available to the Democratic nominee in 2016. Micro-targeting is more robust in a general election than a primary, and it’s too expensive for primary campaigns.
For the primary, candidates “rent” state party databases and state voter rolls and build from that using other database sources. That’s what Clinton’s IT team is doing and from the FEC filings, it’s what other campaigns are doing. I would also imagine that Clinton’s team retained what they had built in 2008. Even though eight years is a long time, Clinton should already know the voters that will stick with her and the ones that may be wiggling.
Doubt that the DNC database has been built to advantage a primary candidate; so, even if one candidate had access to it, it isn’t likely to be helpful.
Thanks for the info. I’m skeptical that micro-targeting is all that expensive once you already have and have analyzed the data. It is expensive to go door-to-door, but rich information about who is behind various doors can save you money there because you will waste less time. It’s true that correlating with other databases that may be less politically-targeted, but more up-to-date could be expensive, but even the out-of-date info is better than no info.
One reason those databases get stale quickly is that Americans move frequently. And micro-targeting is as much about the individual voter as it is where she/he lives.
The example I read about was micro-targeting led to Obama making a significant number of media buys in Alabama. The cheapest market. The target wasn’t in Alabama but across the border in FL which was within the broadcast area of the AL stations. The micro-target in FL was fewer than 1,000 voters. Totally insignificant to the AL election result, but in FL, Obama’s team understood that every vote counted.
Personally, I think micro-targeting voters is creepy. IT consultants earn top dollars, and the quality and cost of the field data collectors can vary widely. greatly