Catalist Enabled Democrats To Create "Seamless Links" With Outside Groups

Obama 2008 campaign manager David Plouffe hired Democrat data firm Catalist in order to allow the campaign to create “seamless links” with liberal activist groups whose voter information would otherwise not have been accessible to the campaign.

But being one client among many in Catalist’s portfolio of progressive institutions allowed the campaign to create seamless links across the activist left, including outside groups with whom candidates were legally prohibited from coordinating directly.

For example, when the group Democracia USA registered a new voter in Florida, Obama’s campaign team often could see the new voter via Catalist’s database before the local board of elections.

When Democracia USA collected a new voter’s registration form in Florida, Obama’s targeting team often knew about it before the local board of elections. Democracia would create a record in its databases, which synced daily with Catalist’s servers. When the Obama campaign conducted its daily download from Catalist database, per its contract with the information vendor the new record would show up in the VAN. The campaign could start treating the person as a voter – assigning model scores, canvassing her, communicating by mail and phone, or getting her an absentee ballot – even before the registration had been official processed.

The voter data shared through Catalist between the Obama campaign and outside groups meant the Obama campaign had information before Republicans did.

Republicans wouldn’t have an idea the new voter even existed until she went on the books.