| what durbin has done is to make votebuilder (also known as the van) available in illinois. durbin correctly points out that votebuilder is available "across the count[r]y." elsewhere, the state parties have partnered with the dnc to bring it to their states. the van was also the basis for both hillary clinton and barack obama's databases. it had been previously available in illinois through resolute consulting and was used in 2006 by congressional candidates like dan seals. others may remember van through efforts in 2004 on behalf of john kerry through act and the america votes coalition. it was one of several attempts by democrats to duplicate the success republicans have had with the voter vault.
the van is also the basis for the dnc's neighborhood volunteer program. what is interesting about this effort is that the national party is giving people access to their database at a local level for voter contact. the information gathered by these efforts gets folded back into the database for future use by democrats running at all levels.
durbin's efforts drags illinois into this national party program. what illinois democrats have been doing is rather archaic (and authoritarian):
The state party's own voter database, known as the "voter file," has been developed and maintained by Madigan's personal campaign committee, Friends of Michael J. Madigan, since the early 1980s, Brown said. The database contains layers of information including voting history and demographics to help candidates identify potential voters.
"The voter file is what is established and maintained by Friends of Madigan and then we try to work with as many candidates and campaigns as possible," Brown said.
Brown said the state party uses Madigan's voter database, but does not have a separate file. He said candidates can gain access to this for a fee, and who can gain access to the file is made on a "case-by-case basis."
if you've ever worked with madigan's database, you know that it is fairly ancient is both design and user-friendliness. and the backend is limited, at best, to simple variables limited to (primarily) public data. but it has been the only game in town, and its success was largely due to the fact that it had no competition. the illinois republican party, which had skipped the "reagan revolution," chose to go its own way, as well. so developments by republicans with the voter vault missed illinois until the campaigns of aaron schock and peter roskam.
what has been happening in other states is that votebuilder has grown significantly. the party rolled out one presentation on their neighborhood leader (or volunteer program) at yearlykos in chicago. by october, they were holding house parties throughout the country to recruit volunteers and get people to start gathering data. the data that was collected on issues, ideology and interests was then entered into votebuilder by local volunteers. several states have already generated tens of thousands of contacts through votebuilder, contacts that are now available to democratic candidates and their local and state parties.
if you're getting the idea that the rest of the country is on a much more advanced level than democrats here in illinois, you'd be correct. but durbin is at least making this valuable resource available at the local level. it remains to be seen whether democrats in illinois take advantage of the resource. there is a critical mass aspect to its value, where it only becomes a significant advantage as more data goes into it. but durbin has been the only statewide elected democrat who has taken a keen interest in local politics in each of the last three election cycles. so there is every reason to believe that he will continue to work with local democratic parties to build an alternative structure to that which speaker madigan controls... |
