Repubs are outsourcing GOTV, to their detriment

[eridani]

This was what it was like in 2002-2006--

http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2006/6/11/104427.shtml

In fact, when Dean was boasting about the 600,000 email addresses he had amassed, the Republicans had 10 times that number. Writing in the National Journal, Michael Barone observed that few reporters at the time "took note of the number of e-mail addresses the Bush campaign had collected: 6 million." Today, the RNC has 15 million such addresses collected by enticing visitors to the GOP Web site by offering useful information like how to register to vote. A more recent feature allows the faithful to create their own Web sites.

In the seventh paragraph of its story about Ickes' efforts to create a data bank, the Post reported that the Democratic National Committee hadn't begun building a national voter file until the 2004 election. According to the story, the list of e-mail addresses proved highly effective in raising money. "Because of many technical problems, however, it was not useful to state and local organizations to get out the vote."

That disclosure provoked expressions of disbelief within the RNC. The highly sophisticated Republican data bank, "Voter Vault," not only is tailored to each county - so that it can be used to get out the vote and target likely Republican voters within Democratic precincts - it can be downloaded into a PDA, allowing precinct workers to add information picked up in door-to-door visits.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-op-hamburger25jun25,0,906381.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions

The database was honed and expanded after the 2000 election recount, when strategists such as Rove and Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman vowed that they would never again permit Democrats to outperform the GOP in a national campaign. Mehlman, who worked in Bush's first term as White House political director, used the months following the recount to study the Democrats' get-out-the-vote efforts. "It was like they had all the planes and the bombers, and we had horses," Mehlman said, referring to the Democrats' once-superior ability to harness labor union activists and other liberal groups to reach voters and get them to the polls.

The new-and-improved GOP database helped Republicans begin to peel away select pieces of the old Democratic base, such as politically conservative and pro-Israel Jews, as well as socially conservative blacks, Latinos and blue-collar workers. In Cleveland, Republicans in 2004 compiled a list of Russian-speaking Jewish immigrants who they knew backed Bush's stance against Islamic terrorism, then organized a rally entirely in Russian on the Sunday before the election.

Both parties can identify voters by precinct, address, party affiliation and, often, their views on hot-button issues. Democrats also use marketing data, but Voter Vault includes far more information culled from marketing sources — including retailers, magazine subscription services, even auto dealers — giving Republicans a high-tech edge in the kind of grass-roots politics that has long been the touchstone of Democratic activists.

This year they've been doing outsourcing. The RNC may be poorer, but the rich secret groups have given them the advantage in media. Looks like that doesn't work as well for GOTV.

http://readersupportednews.org/off-site-news-section/69-69/3732-conservatives-get-out-the-vote-effort-looks-fractured

For the GOP, this year's patchwork approach is a dramatic departure from the last decade, when a single well-organized entity — the Republican National Committee — ran sophisticated voter mobilization programs that were years in the making. But the RNC has faltered in funding and organization recently, and outside groups have stepped up efforts, many of them starting only recently.

"I think the biggest difference in this year is generally this is not a party-driven year, this is not a personality-driven year," said Americans for Prosperity President Tim Phillips, whose group has launched its first voter mobilization effort. Phillips said the effort reflected a shift to movement politics organized around issues, not politicians.

American Crossroads, a tax-exempt group receiving contributions from corporations and wealthy individuals, is putting its ground-game resources to use in nine battleground states. It plans to send more than 100 volunteers to Colorado and Nevada, said Steven Law, the organization's president.

Crossroads will generate 9 million phone calls and 5 million pieces of mail before election day, Law said.

[Scuba]

1. "this is not a party-driven year, this is not a personality-driven year"

God forbid, could this be an issues-driven year?

[eridani]

2. I wish.

Looks more like an ill-informed rage-driven year.