Para Bellum Labs versus Project Ivy. No, it’s no the plot of the new Star Wars movie, but it’s actually the next battle between Republicans and Democrats – this time with a focus on tech.
Data is king in this year’s midterms. Both Republicans and Democrats are pumping millions into new technology initiatives, but Democrats think they still have the advantage because Republicans just don’t fully get the political tech potential.
“The technology is almost the easy part,” said Michael Czin, national press secretary for the Democratic National Committee. “Right now, there isn’t a whole lot of debate in the Democratic Party. There’s the culture of applying this technology and applying it from the volunteer level.”
But Republicans are confident they can inject the new tech into the GOP and kick the label of technophobia.
“We have 15 data directors around the country who are helping campaigns and state parties leverage the new technology,” said Raffi Williams, deputy press secretary for the Republican National Committee. “We’re also introducing data into everything that we do to change the culture of the party.”
After the presidential loss in 2012, the RNC commissioned the Growth and Opportunity Project to re-evaluate its strategy. The report concluded, “Democrats had the clear edge on new media and ground game, in terms of both reach and effectiveness.”
Since that report in early 2013, the GOP has invested heavily in hiring staff and updating its election technology. Chief among these initiatives is the RNC tech startup Para Bellum Labs.
With a stated goal of “building the best political data engineering team in the world” and headed by RNC employees with titles such as “chief digital officer,” Para Bellum is the leading Republican tech startup.
“Para Bellum Labs completely transforms the party’s capability to quickly process and utilize all the data we get from the field,” said Williams. It helps the RNC know what voters care about and how to “communicate with them effectively.”
In addition to the ongoing efforts of Para Bellum, the RNC is updating and enhancing some campaign staples. Every campaign volunteer knows about walkbooks, a paper list of houses to visit and hopefully talk to a potential voter or leave literature. Campaigns have always valued face-to-face contact, and walkbooks have guided volunteers on the most efficient routes to talk to the most voters.
Now, campaigns have access to mobilephone app Advantage Mobile, a digital walk book that not only speeds up the door-to-door process, but allows for instant data collection and responsive questions that change with each answer.
“It allows volunteers to get better, more accurate data in real time so the campaigns can make decisions faster,” said Williams. The freedom of the app also grants greater freedom to volunteers so they can “volunteer on their own schedule.
Not only is the RNC improving its digital presence, it’s also expanding its physical presence. Victory 365 is a new outreach program designed to operate in every state year round, as opposed to just ramping up around election time. The RNC currently has staff in 46 states and is planning to add more employees as midterms approach.
The DNC isn’t just sitting on its laurels while Republicans mobilize. Coming off of a successful 2012 presidential election, the DNC is tasked with converting the proven techniques from the Obama campaign to work on smaller scale races.
“The campaigns have a wealth of information,” said Czin. “You apply it to your race in a way that makes the most sense.”
The DNC is promoting this under the banner of Project Ivy, which has a stated goal to “take what we’ve learned and the tools built for the 2012 Obama campaign and scale them,” for every Democratic candidate.
The tools that are available include initiatives such as the call from home program, where volunteers don’t even need to visit a Democratic campaign office to volunteer or targeted sharing via social media. While these programs are great for contacting voters, the core of the Democratic initiative is the voter file, a collection of voter information gathered from elections past.
“You can see where there are unregistered voters, where there are unregistered voters who are likely Democratic,” said Czin.
Campaigns can then utilize this data the best way for each specific situation. For example, a campaign in Oregon might not want to spend money contacting registered Democrats since Oregon already has a high turnout rate, but a campaign elsewhere might focus on get out the vote efforts.
“You run a program that makes more sense for you,” said Czin.
With all of the new initiatives, Both the RNC and DNC are heavily investing in new tech, and 2014 is shaping up to be a fierce battle for the title of tech top dog between these newly geared up titans.
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