Winning the Senate Depends on Picking the Right Battles

I’m generally skeptical of consultants who hype up digital and social media capabilities while ignoring the “old-fashioned” part of campaigning.  Much was made in the 2012 election about the Obama campaign’s use of technology, while ignoring the boots on the ground networking.

As we get closer to the midterm elections I am gratified to see that we haven’t just been suckered by consultants insisting all fieldworkers use iPads.  Instead, we’re using the kind of analytics and microtargeting data that allowed the Obama machine to turn out the vote.

A friend sent me this news about a new effort to target voters in just four states.  

The PreCog Audience (PcA) consists of the voters in the “Big 4” Senate states that should be targeted because these voters will be persuaded by a specific message – and that will change their vote. The PcA includes each and every one of the more than 13 million voters in Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, and North Carolina that have been determined — right now, in advance — who will be persuaded.

“Is it a crystal ball? It’s as close as we can get,” said Adam Schaeffer, Director of Research at Evolving Strategies. “Is it a game-changing weapon for the Right this election season.”

“We are making available to Republican campaigns an exclusive product that no one else is offering. It has the potential to push Republican candidates to victory in the final weeks of this election cycle because you can now be certain your efforts are hitting the right voters with the right message. It’s political precognition.”

“Evolving Strategies now has access to our 190+ million records, including 4,000 election boards, county clerks and voter registrars, as well as party affiliation, race, exact age, vote history and school board districts,” said Aristotle CEO John Aristotle Phillips. “This is very powerful information, and we are honored to be working with such an innovative company.”

At least one pro-life group is already using the program.  This is the kind of strategy I like seeing from our side.  Too often we just focus on a national message on winning the war (Take back the Senate!) while not focusing on the battles that can realistically get us there.