June 29, 2006
Want The Iowa Dem Voter File? Pony Up At Least $50K
The Hotline has obtained a memo circulated by the Iowa Democratic Party to "interested parties" -- the chieftains of the various '08 Dem presidential campaigns.
Mike Milligan, the IA Dem's exec dir., writes that "The Iowa Democratic Party is offering a special discount on the Voter Activation Network (VAN) to all potential Presidential Campaigns. This plan will allow campaigns to invest in the 2006 Coordinated Campaign while gaining early access to the most sophisticated voter file in the country."
VAN is proprietary term for a computer system run by a company with the same name.
For simplicity's sake, the VAN a term of art for "the voter database," itself a fancy phrase meaning "the voter file." VAN manages the list; the Iowa Dems own it. Campaigns can access the data and add their own identifications and codes.
The RNC's voter files are centralized in a single-vendor system called Voter Vault. Traditionally, Dem state party voter files have been treated like family jewels; State Dem parties get to choose their own vendors and they fiercely guard this prerogative. The lack of interoperability contributed in part to the DNC's problems with its national file in '04.
Between now and July 15, campaigns or PACs who pledge to give $50K to the party in 2006 and another $50K in 2007 get approximately 19 uninterrupted months of database access.
After July 15, access for the rest of 2006 costs $75K. And the estimated cost for 2007 is $85K -- that's because the data will appended with voter IDs from the '06 election.
It's a steep price -- the database access cost $65K for access in '02 -- but here's how VAN claims to have helped Dems in the past:
"With the help of the VAN, Senator Harkin turned back a strong challenge from Rep. Greg Ganske and Gov. Vilsack became the first Democratic governor reelected in Iowa in over a century. The following year, success continued as Voter Activation Network tools helped fuel an unexpected Democratic victory in the Boise mayor's race, helped win six targeted mayor's races in Indiana, and helped shift control of the Indianapolis City Council to Democrats for the first time ever."
"[In] the crucible of the 2004 election, the VAN successfully hosted 22 statewide voter files to meet the needs of America Coming together and 11 statewide parties. As Election Day approached, nearly 15,000 users were feeding more than a million IDs a week into VAN systems using several thousand Palm Pilots, hundreds of bar code scanners, easy text upload procedures, and old-fashioned data entry. While the outcome of the Presidential election was obviously disappointing, Democrats using VAN tools made important strides in legislative races in states as diverse as Idaho, Nevada, Iowa, Michigan, and Connecticut."
Then again, Bush won Iowa in '04... [MARC AMBINDER]
Posted at 03:16 PM
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