tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8925493305476056067.post8025798983755837315..comments2023-10-15T05:33:35.272-04:00Comments on The Mischiefs of Faction: The Ground Game in 2012Seth Maskethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17178036016555722068noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8925493305476056067.post-22864287622911104702013-05-10T21:58:58.046-04:002013-05-10T21:58:58.046-04:00I agree - I wrote a book that spends a chapter det...I agree - I wrote a book that spends a chapter detailing the creation of the VAN (and all the work Howard Dean did as chair around data). It was an immensely important piece of infrastructure that is at the heart of Obama's two runs (as well as races across the country): http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Politics/AmericanPolitics/PoliticalCommunicationMediaStudi/?view=usa&ci=9780199936786dkreisshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00307118447105476372noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8925493305476056067.post-21414552501955162772013-01-31T16:47:28.977-05:002013-01-31T16:47:28.977-05:00Really good points there. It may well be that the ...Really good points there. It may well be that the real innovation was VAN, which had nothing to do with the Obama campaign (although that campaign exploited it very effectively). Seth Maskethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17178036016555722068noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8925493305476056067.post-90306286745125396852013-01-31T12:14:27.242-05:002013-01-31T12:14:27.242-05:00The new tactics Obama used in 2012 were certainly ...The new tactics Obama used in 2012 were certainly innovative but I thought the coverage of them has been a bit overblown. Yes there were new ways to go after voters with social media and online data but most of the tactics that an Obama field office did were very similar to what they did in 2008 in my experience. That is you had a walk packet or call sheets for a given area that came out of the Voter Activation Network (or VAN which is a database of all voters in a given state that your field office would pull from for it's given area) database and would do direct voter contact based on that. You could canvass with your iPhone in some places but that was just a way to enter data about how John Doe at 101 Maple Street was going to vote that didn't involve writing it down on paper and entering it into a computer back at the office. An improvement, but not exactly revolutionary when it comes to field work. For my money the biggest overall change was the introduction VAN database, which depending on the state happened in 2005-2006, meaning Obama's 2008 campaign was the first presidential campaign to use that. Before that, like in 2004 or 2000, databases for Democrats were very campaign specific and could vary a great deal from area to area. In addition, I'd highlight Obama's tenancy to go after voters everywhere in a state with a lot of offices compared to Kerry or Gore where there was a tendency to target just a few geographic areas. In 2004 in Minnesota the Kerry/State Party outfit ("Kerry-Edwards Victory" was their cool sounding name) just did field work in the cities of Minneapolis, St. Paul and Duluth. In 2008 Obama and the state party had offices all over the state. So I'd say Obama's 2008 campaign was much more innovative overall compared to it's predecessors than his 2012 was. longwalkdownlyndalehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13173899547449318257noreply@blogger.com