A group of well-connected Democrats led by a former top aide to Bill Clinton is raising millions of dollars to start a private firm that plans to compile huge amounts of data on Americans to identify Democratic voters and blunt what has been a clear Republican lead in using technology for political advantage.Privacy alert! Oh wait, it's the Donks, so the WaPo line is that the evil Republicans are already doing it. But look who's leading this effort - it's Clinton buttboy Harold Ickes!
The effort by Harold Ickes, a deputy chief of staff in the Clinton White House and an adviser to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), is prompting intense behind-the-scenes debate in Democratic circles. Officials at the Democratic National Committee think that creating a modern database is their job, and they say that a competing for-profit entity could divert energy and money that should instead be invested with the national party.More whining from the DNC and Ickes by following the link, but the best part is that Ickes's company, Data Warehouse, is being funded by Number 1 himself, George Soros with some help from the SPECTRE slush fund over at the Democracy Alliance (sic). Since these folks aren't in it for the money, there's a natural suspicion:
Ickes and others involved in the effort acknowledge that their activities are in part a vote of no confidence that the DNC under Chairman Howard Dean is ready to compete with Republicans on the technological front.
Ickes's effort is drawing particular notice among Washington operatives who know about it because of speculation that he is acting to build a campaign resource for a possible 2008 presidential run by Hillary Clinton.I'm shocked I tell ya! If the Clintons break wind, Harold Ickes passes out.
The whole point of this seems to be the Donk feeling they were beaten in 2004 by a Republican "get out the vote" (GOTV) effort on election day driven by sophisticated information on potential voters' preferences. Here's a clue guys, the Republican GOTV effort was driven by local volunteers who knew their communities. No matter how much data mining you do, sending the usual Donk collection of greasy hippies and paid union thugs door-to-door isn't going to help turn out voters unless they're the kind to whom you can offer a pack of smokes, but those folks already booked up to vote three or four times as it is.
