A lot’s been made and written on the digital gap between Republicans and Democrats – highlighted in last years’ races.  Here’s a good update from the RNC meeting in Boston that covers the digital push within the party.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/16/gop-tech-andy-barkett_n_3769818.html

“Technologist gap” seems to be the new phrase.  We have to look at it in stages, where the Democrats have had years to build up their programs.  They are more data driven – they live it and they think it.  Where as we may be able to catch up – close that gap – we also need to turn our thinking in that direction as well.  Democrats constantly collect and build upon their data.  For Republicans we need to ask ourselves: “what happened with the all the data – the ID calls, door-to-door/canvassing, etc. – from the top campaign you worked on last year?  Did it go to a central database that other campaigns will use this year or next?  Is kept within an internal campaign database that is constantly updated and appended?  Democrats have a system for that – and that’s just the database.  Doesn’t account for the modeling and then executing of data driven plans.  Long way to go but it looks like the RNC is making progress with their recent push and hires.

–  Team SHC