(From January 2004)
Political groups are finding out what kind of car their prospective supporters drive, how much they earn, what sort of neighborhood they live in and what magazines they read.
They may not know how individuals voted in the last election, but they do know who showed up at the polls and whether they are registered with a particular party -- strong indicators of how they are likely to vote in the November election, experts say.
"It's pretty scary, the stuff you can get on people," said Robert Richman, founder of the liberal campaign consulting firm Grassroots Solutions.
[...]
On a recent afternoon, company President Dean Aristotle Phillips searched the voter database for Democratic women between 35 and 45 years old in Fairfield County, Connecticut, who have indicated they don't want to receive telemarketing calls.
The computer returned 3,004 matches, with a long list of personal details: name, address, phone number, income level, whether they have children, household size, whether they have an "ethnic" surname. Contributions to political candidates, arts organizations, environmental groups and other interest groups were also noted.
Most valuable is the voter history, which reveals how many elections the person has participated in since 1984. Reliable voters are especially prized, Phillips said.