We've all heard the many stories of the superiority of President Obama's, and the Democrat's advantages in digital election management software. Now, Rachel Weiner warns us that Industry changes may affect Democrats’ domination in digital politics, as firms that formerly dealt exclusively with Democrats, and progressive causes, look to expand profits and market share by selling their software tools, services, knowledge, and potentially data bases to Republican and conservative causes.
This article is too long, and contains too many thought provoking quotes, on both sides of the issue, for me to try to summarize within the fair use guidelines, so I can merely give you a few samples to whet your appetite.
Speaking about NationBuilder's deal, earlier this year, to make its exclusive election tools available to all 6,000 candidates of the Republican State Legislative Committee, "lefty activist" Raven Brooks responds:
“Most of the tools for political organizing are partisan, so we have a technical advantage,” said Raven Brooks, executive director of Netroots Nation, an annual get-together for lefty digital activists. “Basically what this is doing is it’s throwing open that door and taking away that competitive advantage.”
Apparently, the previously exclusively progressive Change.org is giving up its progressive screen, and is now open to anyone, or any cause. Salsa has had a leadership change, with nasty accusations of potential "betrayal", and NGP VAN is accusing competitor NationBuilder of selling out.
Although the co-founders of NationBuilder came from progressive backgrounds, they now see their purpose as "leveling the playing field" for Republicans and Democrats "so that any candidate, no matter their budget or staff skill level, can have a professional digital operation."
“As someone who fought in the political trenches I realized the most important thing wasn’t fighting the individual political battle but changing the whole political system,” Green said. “We believe America is a better place when everyone has the power to run a grass-roots campaign.” ...
NationBuilder is countering that these allegations are lies spread by its competitor, NGP VAN, a very large, and apparently exclusively Democratic firm, used by President Obama's campaign, and many other Democrats.
“NGP VAN sales people regularly lie about us, saying that we will share your data with Republicans,” the NationBuilder Web site reads. “This is not true.”
NGP VAN chief executive Stu Trevelyan dismisses those claims. NGP VAN recently launched its own affordable option for local candidates. But, he argued, Democratic wariness makes sense: “NationBuilder would like to have everybody forget what they’re trying to do, which is level the technology playing field, and the reality is that it’s not in progressives’ and Democrats’ interest to do that.”
Democrat Joe Trippi, who frequently uses NationBuilder, says he doesn't care who else uses the firm's software, as it is only a candidate's ideas that matter.
Rachel Weiner's well researched article goes into similar detail with case studies of Change.org, Salsa, and other firms that provide digital software and tools for election campaign management, and will certainly get you thinking about some important issues in choosing your election software.