The GOP’s Data Surge

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National Review:

For two days last week, Republican strategists, political consultants, and digital gurus convened in a sleek, wood-paneled conference room on the third floor of New York City’s Standard hotel. Their mission: to reverse the fortunes of the Republican party by leveraging voter data, technology, and public opinion to win elections.

 

More than a year removed from an election year in which Democrats used data to gain insights that allowed them to swing a handful of races, including at the top of the ticket, those gathered were determined that the GOP do better in this year’s midterm elections. Among the attendees: National Republican Senatorial Committee executive director Rob Collins; Alex Lundry, the Romney campaign’s director of data science; GOP pollster Kristin Soltis Anderson; Johnny DeStefano, a former aide to John Boehner, now serving as the president of Data Trust, the organization providing a warehouse for Republicans’ voter files; and representatives from Google, Facebook, and AOL.

 

 

Top party officials have readily admitted that the GOP has work to do in the realm of data collection and digital targeting. The next step, Collins says, is to “start getting better,” and that is easier said than done. The goal of last week’s meeting, in the words of one attendee, was to “get everybody on the same page” ahead of the midterm elections.

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After the meeting, the R's ran out and setup AOL accounts and MySpace pages....

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FreedomWorks Polling Suggests Path for Uniting Republicans

 

By Rudy Takala on January 17, 2014

“If his forces are united, separate them. If sovereign and subject are in accord, put division between them,” suggested Sun Tzu in the Art of War. Speaker John Boehner gets half of that concept right. He excels at creating division on his own side. He just has a hard time when it comes to dividing the other side.

 

Polling data released by FreedomWorks on Wednesday offers some guidance as to how Republicans ought to govern if they want to be on voters’ side before the next election. According to the numbers, 58 percent of voters believe jobs and the economy should be the number one priority in Congress this year, followed by 46 percent who believe it should be healthcare.

 

Delving deeper into the healthcare issue, voters said a “start over and reform health care” message made them 34 percent more likely to vote for a hypothetical candidate, while a “give it a chance to work” message made them 16 percent less likely to do so.

That’s great news for candidates willing to reform Obamacare. http://www.freedomworks.org/blog/rtakala/freedomworks-polling-suggests-path-for-uniting-rep