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RNC to create a digital strategy

by Phantom Ace ( 36 Comments › )
Filed under Democratic Party, Elections 2012, Elections 2016, Progressives, Republican Party at March 13th, 2013 - 6:00 pm

Organizing for Action has become a practically invinsible political machine. Through the use of data mining and tailoring messages that fit their target demographic, OFA has created an anti-Republican coalition. This anti-Republican alliance is what fueled Obama’s 2012 win. That said, it’s an unstable alliance that if you target certain groups in thet alliance and peel off a significant portion, OFA’s anti-Republican coalition would fall apart. But doing so requires building infrastructure and identifying an issue that can divide that coalition. In the meantime OFA is now claiming its non partisan which is a joke. It is the glue that holds the anti-Republican coalition together.

To counter the OFA machine, the RNC is finally putting together a digital strategy. They are now seeking a Technology officer to build and coordinate this new digital infrastructure.

As part of a rebuilding effort after its 2012 electoral losses, the Republican National Committee on Tuesday announced plans to put an enhanced digital strategy at the center of its operation, led by a new chief technology officer.

[….]

The R.N.C. aims to hire its new technology officer by May 1, after a search that will include Silicon Valley executives and experts in data analysis. Extensive political experience is not necessarily a requirement. The ideal candidate, Ms. Kukowski said, could be someone who “maybe has been an outsider and is maybe able to come in and change the way that we think.”

Republicans learned the hard way in 2012 how valuable a robust technology operation can be, as the Obama campaign used Web analytics, voter data, social media and online fund-raising to more effectively organize voters, drive turnout and increase donations. The Obama campaign also hired a chief technology officer, Harper Reed, from the tech sector and a team of engineers to build a technology infrastructure to drive the president’s re-election effort.

[….]

Reince Priebus, the committee’s chairman, turned to party elders like Ari Fleischer and Haley Barbour to conduct the so-called Growth and Opportunity Project – a point of derision among younger, more tech-savvy conservative activists. But, said Ms. Kukowski, fresh from a meeting about the review, “a recurring theme throughout this report is getting the youth influence.”

They key is to get younger views into the GOP hierarchy. This will require a change in the current culture of the GOP. Too many in the Republican party are dismissive people under 40. This has allowed the Democrats to create an advantage among younger voters. By bringing younger people to the table, many of whom are tech savy, they will get a more accurate view of what sells with different elements of the electorate. The best organizations combine experience with new talent. I do not know if the GOP’s answer to OFA will be effective in time for 2016, but it is a start. The next thing the GOP needs to do is eliminate the Corrupt Consultant Class who are only interested in making money and not winning elections. People like Karl Rove need to be kicked to the curb.

I wish the Republicans had taken this approach a few cycles ago, but at least they are now trying to rectify this situation. The key is not only to match OFA, but to surpass them. OFA’s fatal flaw is that the people who run it are arrogant Hipsters who believe they are superior. I will in the future do a post on how to rip the anti-Republican coalition apart. It’s much easier than most people think, but it will require a major change in outlook from Republicans.

(Hat Tip: Legal Insurrection via Eaglesoars)

Tags: Data Mining, Organizing For Action, RNC
Posted in Democratic Party, Elections 2012, Elections 2016, Progressives, Republican Party | 36 Comments »

OFA’s plan for to create a One Party Nation by turning Texas Blue

by Phantom Ace ( 112 Comments › )
Filed under Barack Obama, Cult of Obama, Democratic Party, Elections 2016, Progressives, Republican Party at February 28th, 2013 - 7:00 am

I originally was going to do a joke thread that Conservatives should join the Democrat Party to the advantages of media and culture. But a more important subject has come up that I need to discuss.

On last night’s radio show AZ Old Dog, Eagle Soars, Osprey and I discussed the technological machine that is Organizing for Action. This machine which led to Obama’s re-election triumph in 2012 despite a bad economy. Yes the Democrats advantage with the popular culture and Media helped, but it was the technological advantage that really is the key to the Democrat’s strength. Now OFA is setting its sight on a new target, Texas.

Some on the blog scoff at the notion at Texas turning blue, do so at your own peril. Organizing For Action’s data mining techniques and manipulation of voters through slick messaging works. I saw first hand how in Florida they turned the once solidly Republican Cuban American vote, into swing vote that broke narrowly for Obama. They did through a combination of fear mongering by claiming Republicans were going to take away Dry Foot, Wet Foot and using bigoted words of people like Ann Coulter in emails. The result was Cubans got angry and scared of the Republicans and broke with a Party they have backed for nearly 50 years. It was dirty, but i worked.

Texas is currently solidly Red, but many from Blue States have move in. Although the Texas Republican Party does better with the Hispanic vote (35%-40%) than the party does nationally (27%), using the Florida blueprint of fear mongering and propaganda, OFA hopes to make them solidly Democrat. They also plan to target younger Texans who may not be as culturally Conservative as their parents. The trick OFA will use is to try to convince these younger voters that the Democrats are fiscally Conservative but Socially tolerant. They then will use Republicans like Santorum, who is OFA’s greatest asset, into shaming voters from voting Republican. I met people who really believe that on fiscal and economic matters that there is no difference than Republicans and Democrats. They vote Democrat because OFA has convinced them Republicans are hateful bigots. Republicans have never refuted any of these allegations, because they are not aware of what OFA is doing.

The man who is tasked with turning Texas blue is Jeremy Bird. Using OFA’s micromanagement tactics he pulled a surprise win for Obama in Florida. Now he is being given the resources to make Texas a Battleground state and then eventually a Democrat stronghold. He is the head of the OFA offshoot, Battleground Texas.

But who is capable of pulling just this scenario off? Enter: Battleground Texas and its senior adviser, Jeremy Bird.

Last month, Politico reported that Mr. Bird — President Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign national field director — was in Austin, Texas to meet with local Democrats on Battleground Texas, “a large-scale independent group aimed at turning traditionally conservative Texas into a prime electoral battleground.”

In his early 30s, Mr. Bird is a current and future star of the Democratic Party’s awesomely effective campaign machine. As Mr. Obama’s field director, he revolutionized the effectiveness of the traditional field model, registering, among a great many others, 361,000 left-leaning voters in Florida, 156,000 left-leaning voters in Colorado and 96,000 left-leaning voters in Nevada. Not bad, considering Mr. Obama’s candidacy was no longer an historic first.

[….]

“Bird wouldn’t play in Texas on a hope,” Vlytics partner Scott Tranter told TheDC. “He can pick his next job; choose his next salary. If he’s moving to Texas, it’s because he thinks he can win — and he’s proven that he can.”

Over his three presidential campaigns, Mr. Bird has been responsible for millions of door knocks and tens of millions of phone calls that didn’t simply target Democrats — they targeted Republican and undecided Americans that Mr. Obama’s data operation knew were likely to respond favorably.

“Our approach — using smart data, people-to-people organizing, and digital strategies and analytics — can win even the toughest of campaigns,” Mr. Bird said on a Tuesday conference call with reporters, “and we know it will work in Texas too.”

Indeed, Mr. Bird is at the cutting edge of the technological prowess that helped the Democrats so effectively defeat the Republicans in 2008 and 2012. The Wall Street Journal described his approach as “one part data and one part emotional connection. He keeps close track of which states are making their targets each day, but also preaches the value of relationships — between the campaign and its volunteers, and between volunteers and voters.”

[….]

On Feb. 24, Mr. Bird retweeted a Huffington Post article in which Mr. Perry said that Texas going blue “is the biggest pipe dream I have ever heard.”

Mr. Bird added two words: “Love this.”

Do not laugh at Jeremy Bird’s confidence about Texas. He has turned Red States like Florida Blue using data-mining, paid volunteers embedded in neighborhoods and using Republicans own words against them.

The problem facing Republicans is not demographic. Groups change their voting patterns over time. White Southerners were once solidly Democrat, but now are the base of the Republican Party. The North East and Upper Midwest was once the home of he Republican Party, now it is the Democrat Party’s home turf. Young voters in the 1980’s voted for Ronald Reagan and thought Republicans were cool. Now they view Republicans as evil and out of touch. Hence why I did not emphasize any demographic change in Texas as the reason for it potentially going blue, it is OFA’s methods and technological superiority that can make it go blue.

No amount of change in language, tactics or outreach to new groups of voters will amount to a hill of beans until the Republicans come up with their version of Organizing for Action. Unlike the Democrats, the GOP will not need to distort the truth or demagogue to win voters. But the Party needs to mimic the OFA’s data-mine and behavioral analysis, plus establishing personal relationships with voters. That is the only way to win going forward.

Demography is not destiny, but Technology is. If the GOP does not create an OFA like organization; then Texas will be gone in the next few cycles. If that happens, then my joke will have to be a reality. Conservatives will have to join the Democrat Party to have any influence.

Tags: Battleground Texas, Data Mining, Jeremy Bird, Organizing For Action
Posted in Barack Obama, Cult of Obama, Democratic Party, Elections 2016, Progressives, Republican Party | 112 Comments »