Can Data Mining Win a Presidential Campaign?

Nerval's Lobster writes "According to the Associated Press, Mitt Romney's campaign has contracted consumer-analytics firm Buxton Co. to drill deep into consumer data, with the aim of digging up 'wealthy and previously untapped' donors. (Romney digital director Zac Moffatt told political Website Politico as far back as June that the Romney campaign would 'outsource' its data analytics rather than develop the necessary infrastructure in-house.) In addition to hooking the digital side of their campaign to the Facebook data hose, Obama's election managers have hired a mix of digital directors, software engineers and statistics experts. 'Obama for America is looking for Quantitative Media Analysts, Analytics Engineers, Battleground States Elections Analysts and Modeling Analysts,' reads a want ad on the campaign's Website. The goal: to create data processing pipelines, integrate new data into models, build tools, and generate reports. In an election this close, with a rapidly shrinking number of undecided voters and contested states, a razor-thin advantage created by data analytics could mean the difference between success and failure."

Comments

Oh the irony

[Ollabelle]

So Romney is outsourcing Republican party functions too?

Re:Oh the irony

[Hillgiant]

It's the next logical step. They have outsourced the military, legislation, and regulation.

Re:Oh the irony

[Jodka]

So Romney is outsourcing Republican party functions too?

Yes, according to what I heard, they do no do it themselves, someone else makes it happen.