Why Obama's Data Could Be Too Much for Many Dem Candidates
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If political races have become data wars, conventional wisdom has it, the Democrats clearly have the advantage in 2014 and 2016. After all, the stockpiles of data from President Barack Obama’s two campaigns have been deposited in the party’s armory alongside the software to put it to good use.
But it’s not so simple. While the party as a whole navigates a newly treacherous political landscape — none other than Nate Silver predicted the Democrats could actually lose control of the Senate — individual campaigns across the country may struggle to use something as big and complex as Obama’s data trove, which was built for a nationwide campaign. Think of taking a fire hose to your flower garden, or asking the local marina’s security guy to dock a submarine.
The fact is, even if the political topics had stayed the same, most state legislative or U.S. House candidates can’t possibly use all the data that’s been given to the party. And, just as important, a single candidate simply doesn’t have the resources to hire more than one internal data handler, much less replicate the 50-plus crew that steered the Obama analytics ship.
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