Making moves on the DNC, Harold Ickes...Clinton advisor et al

[madfloridian]

They are going to start their own database of Democrats outside of the DNC. Do you remember Demzilla, the database that was previously formed? Just before Dean came on board, they shared it with all the other groups like the DSCC and DCCC and the DLCC. Dean made some comments, I have them somewhere, that the database was not available. I found a diary at Kos on this...will have to find it.

I don't like this. Ickes ran for chair, endorsed Dean. I figured this was coming. I think they are going all out.

My first question: Where the hell is Demzilla, the huge database. Are they screwing him by not letting him have it? I stayed with the party, so did my hubby because we trust Howard Dean on his way of rebuilding....to get big money mostly out of controlling things.
I have no loyalty now otherwise, so I will be keeping an eye on this. The big guys in WA have given Bush his judges, his tax cuts, everything. I do not trust much anymore.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/07/AR2006030701860.html

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.

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.

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. "The Republicans have developed a cadre of people who appreciate databases and know how to use them, and we are way behind the march," said Ickes, whose political technology venture is being backed by financier George Soros.

"It's unclear what the DNC is doing. Is it going to be kept up to date?" Ickes asked, adding that out-of-date voter information is "worse than having no database at all."

[Larkspur]

1. Another Wash Post article that snidely attacks Dean and repeats the meme

that Dems are divided.

[madfloridian]

2. This one is making inroads in my brain.

I am looking for my previous post elsewhere about Dean at a fundraiser talking about the LACK of a database....when Demzilla was already formed.

[madfloridian]

4. Here you go, from a friend's post.

I can't find mine, but this sure stuck in my brain. A fellow DFAer wrote this up and shared it.

Kos diary about Dean at a DNC fundraiser, where he mentions lack of a database.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/28/224932/882

"The Democratic Party has been out of date for 30 years. For 30 years the Republicans have been building an infrastructure that exists between election cycles and allows them to maintain a constant prescience. For years the Democratic Party has assumed that a charismatic candidate will come along and overwhelm the Republican machine with his personality, another JKF or Bill Clinton. The Republican organization is so good that they can get any imbecile elected (witness Bush). When I came in as head of the DNC, Terry left me with a good budget and a really nice building full of up-to-date technology. What I didn't have was an organization on the ground and a database.

During the last election the local parties, ACT and others built incredible databases, but nobody knows where they are anymore. With every election cycle we have to start over because the DNC didn't keep the lists. We need to do that now, we need a database. We won't fundraise from it, we'll give it back to all of you so you can organize and fundraise for each local and state election."
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Which made me wonder, what happened to Demzilla, the so-called database with so many? Did Terry not turn it over to him?
http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/021705/demzilla.html

Hill Dems get into Demzilla
By Hans Nichols
"Outgoing Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Terry McAuliffe has given the House and Senate political committees access to “Demzilla,” the massive computer voter database that has brought the DNC closer to information parity with the Republicans.

The sharing of Demzilla could mark the beginning of a new regime of information-sharing among Democratic political committees that have long competed with each other to reach a limited donor universe.

Democratic strategists said Demzilla will have a much greater impact on the party’s congressional fortunes than McAuliffe’s other 11th-hour bequest: the transfer of $1 million to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC).

The new DNC chairman, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, said last week that he was aware, and fully supportive, of giving the committees access to Demzilla. Both Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), chairman of the DCCC, and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), chairman of the DSCC, pleaded with McAuliffe to share the file, according to aides.

“I have been told about Demzilla,” Dean said, adding, “I am a big fan of Terry McAuliffe. Everything we do today stands on the shoulders of his fundraising efforts.”

The carefully guarded database contains more than 170 million records, with files that have been scrubbed and updated. They include hundreds of bytes of information about voter behavior and consumer preferences.

While Demzilla might not have the high money yield of donor files in Dean’s Democracy For America organization or the group EMILY’s List, party strategists said Demzilla has the most comprehensive compilation of data available to Democrats and contains more raw information than most other lists combined.

The Republican National Committee has a similar computer file, Voter Vault, but has always shared access with GOP congressional committees. However, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) have paid for its upkeep.

“We pay for part of the maintenance of the voter file, so we have full access to it,” said Carl Forti, spokesman for the NRCC. “We’ve had access for years, so it’s not like this is something new.”

In contrast, Demzilla was created, paid for and housed by the DNC."

[Rose Siding]

3. "for-profit entity" -Privatized Party

Dean left you in the SAND on tech, Ickes

[madfloridian]

5. Pic from before the chair election.

[LA lady]

6. Soros is paying??

"Ickes, whose political technology venture is being backed by financier George Soros."

for Hillary?

[madfloridian]

7. That is what the article says.

Yep.

[madfloridian]

8. Oops, posted this in wrong place. HERE is what Dean said about database.

Or lack of. Something is really rotten in Denmark...oops make that DC.

I can't find my post previously, but this sure stuck in my brain. A fellow DFAer wrote this up and shared it.

Kos diary about Dean at a DNC fundraiser, where he mentions lack of a database.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/28/224932/882

"The Democratic Party has been out of date for 30 years. For 30 years the Republicans have been building an infrastructure that exists between election cycles and allows them to maintain a constant prescience. For years the Democratic Party has assumed that a charismatic candidate will come along and overwhelm the Republican machine with his personality, another JKF or Bill Clinton. The Republican organization is so good that they can get any imbecile elected (witness Bush). When I came in as head of the DNC, Terry left me with a good budget and a really nice building full of up-to-date technology. What I didn't have was an organization on the ground and a database.

(Where the hell is Demzilla, Terry?)

During the last election the local parties, ACT and others built incredible databases, but nobody knows where they are anymore. With every election cycle we have to start over because the DNC didn't keep the lists. We need to do that now, we need a database. We won't fundraise from it, we'll give it back to all of you so you can organize and fundraise for each local and state election."
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Which made me wonder, what happened to Demzilla, the so-called database with so many? Did Terry not turn it over to him?
http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/021705/demzilla.html

Hill Dems get into Demzilla
By Hans Nichols
"Outgoing Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Terry McAuliffe has given the House and Senate political committees access to “Demzilla,” the massive computer voter database that has brought the DNC closer to information parity with the Republicans.

The sharing of Demzilla could mark the beginning of a new regime of information-sharing among Democratic political committees that have long competed with each other to reach a limited donor universe.

Democratic strategists said Demzilla will have a much greater impact on the party’s congressional fortunes than McAuliffe’s other 11th-hour bequest: the transfer of $1 million to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC).

The new DNC chairman, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, said last week that he was aware, and fully supportive, of giving the committees access to Demzilla. Both Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), chairman of the DCCC, and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), chairman of the DSCC, pleaded with McAuliffe to share the file, according to aides.

“I have been told about Demzilla,” Dean said, adding, “I am a big fan of Terry McAuliffe. Everything we do today stands on the shoulders of his fundraising efforts.”

The carefully guarded database contains more than 170 million records, with files that have been scrubbed and updated. They include hundreds of bytes of information about voter behavior and consumer preferences.

While Demzilla might not have the high money yield of donor files in Dean’s Democracy For America organization or the group EMILY’s List, party strategists said Demzilla has the most comprehensive compilation of data available to Democrats and contains more raw information than most other lists combined.

The Republican National Committee has a similar computer file, Voter Vault, but has always shared access with GOP congressional committees. However, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) have paid for its upkeep.

“We pay for part of the maintenance of the voter file, so we have full access to it,” said Carl Forti, spokesman for the NRCC. “We’ve had access for years, so it’s not like this is something new.”

In contrast, Demzilla was created, paid for and housed by the DNC."


Where the hell is Demzilla. What is going on here?

[madfloridian]

9. Key words...for profit entity...you are right.

"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."

[Pithy Cherub]

10. Actually this may be more about

cultivating big donors and marketing to them that Ickes is after. This is about who the money should be spent on and amassing empirical evidence to support a case on behalf of the establishment. Ickes seems to be going after a push marketing model while Dean has been pulling people/technology into the DNC via multi-media means. Dean also controls the data he has and that may stick in the craws of some Dems who don't have a permanent seat inside Dean's operation.

During the last election there was an influx of younger voters and the consternation that was caused when pollsters realized they were using traditional land lines rather than polling via cell phones. The next election cycle is going to show the digital divide even more. The grassroots/netroots are becoming the technology sophisticates and are already very internet savvy. We are also overwhelmingly more inclined to energetically respond to a call from Governor Dean than Ickes.

The Liberal Blogosphere also has to be causing some establishment consternation as it is a rapid reaction and response force that is not replicable elsewhere. Governor Dean is also known for being a product of the netroots. Methinks, some folks are trying to even the playing field in their own minds.

[madfloridian]

11. Maybe. Here is what Dean said in 04 about people vs databases.

"campaigns use massive electronic databases (the "data mart")that contains tons of consumer information to figure out individual voters' buying habits and, through a statistical model, their political inclinations."

"Based on that information, they divide people into "buckets." There's a dark red bucket, a dark blue bucket, a light blue bucket, a light red bucket, and so on, depending on where people fall on the Democratic-to-Republicans spectrum."

Then he explains that this technique has done great damage to our grassroots efforts.

"Turning voters into consumer composites means that real people, until the moment they enter voting booth, aren't part of the process at all...."

"We have to put people back at the center of political campaigns. And we as a party must remember to stay centered on our traditional Democratic values, which are about people." (Pages 161. 162 of You Have the Power.)

Our party has not done that. This was published in September 04, and he had not began to campaign for chairman at that time. I hope he can change the way business is done, cause what has been tried isn't working.

These quotes are from his book, You Have the Power. You may be right on the things you said. But in the past, we have had little input to the party... and I think many like the old way best.

Whatever happened to Demzilla, the end all be all database? Didn't they give it over to him? Or just to Schumer and Rahm. See my post above.

[MH1]

12. K & R...not sure what to make of this yet...

my first reaction was unpleasant, though.

I like what Dean said in one of your posts here about giving the data and tools to the local, county, and state people, for GOTV and party-building (ie it's not all about money, folks). I don't like seeing big money diverted into a tool that will be used to push Hillary at us in 2008, though.

[madfloridian]

13. And in a private, not party, database. Not connected to DNC...

that is what bothers me the most.

I am not sure of all the implications, but it has a bad feel.

[MH1]

14. Pretty much sums up my reaction.

:hi: