In Iowa as in many states, Obama's campaign recruited many dedicated volunteers. These volunteers did an amazing job of seemingly endless phone calls and weekends full of door knocking. While their efforts were certainly not the only reason for the decisive win, no one can argue that they weren't a very important part.
Unfortunately, when the election was over, Obama's campaign left, taking with them all the data that Democratic volunteers had painstakingly collected. It seemed to be "Thank You Very Much, Your National Party Will See You in Four Years".
Every Democrat needs to ask for their state. Please Mr. President, will you share the voter data we helped you collect? Follow me below for more.
One of the many problems in the 2010 election was that state Democratic parties, including Iowa's, had to re-create much of the voter information that we had in 2008. And while OFA helped, and we appreciated that a lot, it was too little too late.
Now for 2014 and beyond, we face exactly the same problem. Much of the voter and volunteer data we collected in 2012 left when OFA left the state. So here goes.
Dear Obama Campaign:
We respectfully request that you share the information collected from public databases, combined with the information the citizens generously provided to the volunteers. That includes VAN, contact information, whether they voted by mail, early in person, or at the polls etc.
One of the responses we got when we asked you to share the data was that some of it was confidential. If true, then thank you, but we prefer not to have the confidential info on our citizens, just the public stuff. If not true, then all the easier.
Yes, you're right, we can probably re-create at least some of this ourselves and will be doing so, but how wasteful is that!! There are so many other things that need to be done.
We are all on Team Blue. Maintaining searchable, updated databases in each state between elections will be a real advantage in taking back the House in 2014 and in supporting the Democratic candidate in 2016.
What do you say?
Sincerely Yours,
The grassroots.