“I’m not a member of any organized political party…. I’m a Democrat.”
– Will Rogers, 1935.
Some things never change. While Democrats have thus far shown remarkable solidarity in response to the shutdown, there are numerous party battles on the horizon that could make Game of Thrones look like a baby shower competition.
There’s the obvious acrimony that will develop as an abundance of aspirants decide they are the consummate choice to take on Trump. Setting the criteria for inclusion in primary debates – and setting rules for those debates – won’t be at all pretty. There’s also the very political selection of a city to host the 2020 Democratic convention. And, of course, there’s the creation of the 2020 Democratic party platform – a fairly meaningless document that will nonetheless cause massive amounts of heartburn.
The role of the Democratic National Committee itself will be an issue. Tom Perez, the DNC chairman, needs to convince skeptics from all corners of his party that the DNC will be a neutral actor during the primaries. It doesn’t help that Obama let the DNC whither in favor of his own Organizing for America project. As a result, the DNC is still playing catch-up with its Republican counterpoint in numerous arenas.
One arena of massive concern is in the management of voter data. Yeah, I get it. You’re thinking about being stuck on a slow elevator watching paint dry on Mike Pence’s face while listening to Yanni. However, this tedious, esoteric issue could easily be the difference between winning and losing in 2020.
There’s a very ugly public battle currently being fought over whether ownership of data should be at the national or state level. The DNC wants to combine all data into one common database; the states want their own repositories.
State parties understandably want to retain control of the data that they (mostly) have gathered. They are also correct that state-level data management worked just fine during the mid-term elections. However, that was because the largest entities holding elections were the states; there were no national contests.
Unfortunately, silos of data only work well within those silos. They are largely useless in their native form by anyone else (for a variety of reasons well beyond a political blog). The states have countered that they can work directly with other states to share their data, but that’s just a whole lot of repetitive work.
The DNC has understandably tried to position themselves as the best choice to own everything. Central data management does brings massive benefits to a national campaign and leveraging a common set of data augmentation, validation, and reporting schemes helps candidates at all levels. Unfortunately, Perez has shown an amazing lack of political nuance as he’s lobbied for that point of view, sending a tone-deaf memo to state party leaders berating them for not immediately acknowledging his brilliance and not simply handing over all of their data.
Both the state and national parties understand that data is valuable and that there is money to be made by whatever entity controls it. However, from a standpoint of winning elections, this CANNOT BE AN ISSUE. The state and national folks need to figure out how to share data AND the income it generates.
If only there was someone that was an expert in data management that could help the Democrats figure all of this out.
Oh, wait. I’M an expert. And it’s not like I’m the only one. Anyone that has even a cursory understanding of the management of large data sets knows that this is by no means a unique problem. There is nothing new here. Nothing. Large multi-site & multi-national corporations have been dealing with this problem for eons. Local execs always want to control their own data; corporate execs always want to manage everything at a corporate level. I guarantee that the DNC data issues are nowhere near as complex as the issues faced by any Fortune 500 company.
After Republicans got spanked by OFA in 2012 with respect to data management, the Republican National Committee began a state-of-the-art project to update their data strategy. Although it’s a vast oversimplification, the RNC essentially created a for-profit trust which allows multiple Republican entities to deposit data in a common format in a centralized database. That data is augmented with social media information, voter analytics, and data from numerous other sources to create a quite remarkable (and frankly scary) voter base profile. For a fee, subsets of that data are then be made easily available to candidates and groups affiliated with the Republican Party. The data contributors share in the revenue but, since the trust itself is a separate entity, it can raise money free from campaign finance limitations.
The strategy worked well and was a huge resource for Republicans in 2016. Hillary Clinton even blamed her loss partially on the DNC’s data not being nearly as useful as the RNC’s data. While there were no shortage of other reasons for her loss, the quality and usage of voter information were definitely issues. That’s simply not acceptable for 2020.
The DNC has essentially said that they want to copy the RNC strategy. That’s not a bad choice at all, but technology has moved on even in the few intervening years and there’s even more that Democrats can do if they can get their acts together. It would help a whole lot if party leaders at all levels could tone down their rhetoric and acknowledge that this does not have to be a zero-sum game.
This is a national issue and it needs a national strategy. The states need to give up sole ownership of their data; the national party needs to let the states share in data revenue. Time is running out and Democrats are far behind Republicans in this arena. Democrats need to hire someone immediately that knows what the hell they’re doing and give them the authority to make it happen.