This story was
written for the AP and I think was intended to be a news article. It is in my
opinion an Op Ed piece. It is also my opinion it was written in a style to be
negative to the Romney Campaign. Again my opinion is that it is so filled with
pretensions, innuendo, and sly adjectives that it reads more like the intro to a
Tom Clancy style novel than news. Things like “secretive data-mining project” “sway
presidential elections” “ferret out Americans' consumer behavior and habits.” Make
for great copy but poor reporting.
What I have tried
to do is break down each paragraph into the basic facts and leave out all enhancements.
Those are displayed as the bold and
underlined portions.
Mr. Gillum’s
article would I think make a well written pro Obama editorial and I have
included the article as fair use in this discussion of the same. I have
included attribution to him as well.
AP Exclusive:
Romney uses secretive data-mining
By JACK GILLUM,
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) —
Building upon its fundraising prowess, Mitt Romney's campaign began a secretive
data-mining project this summer to sift through Americans' personal information
— including their purchasing history and church attendance — to identify new
and likely wealthy donors, The Associated Press has learned.
The Associated Press has learned that
the Romney campaign has begun to use marketing research which uses data-mining
to identify new donors.
The project
employs strategies similar to those the business world uses to influence the
way Americans shop and think. Now they're being used to sway presidential
elections. The same personal data consumers give away — often unwittingly when
they swipe their credit cards or log into Facebook — is now being used by the
people who might one day occupy the White House.
This project will use similar
procedures to those used in the business world. It will collect public data
from consumer purchases and from social media web sites.
For Romney's
data-mining project, which began as early as June, the Republican candidate
quietly turned to a little-known but successful analytics firm that previously
performed marketing work for a colleague tied to Bain & Co., the
management-consulting firm that Romney once led.
This project which may have begun in
June or perhaps at a later date, will use an analytics firm that once did
marketing work for an un-named person who is in some unknown way associated to
Bain & Co. The management-consulting firm Bain & Co was once run by Mitt
Romney.
The head of
Buxton Co. of Fort Worth, Texas, chief executive Tom Buxton, confirmed to the
AP his company's efforts, which help Romney identify potentially wealthy and
previously untapped Republican donors across the country. The Romney campaign
declined to discuss on the record its work with Buxton or the project's overall
success.
Buxton Co. of Fort Worth, Texas, is a
privately owned company whose chief executive and owner is Tom Buxton. Mr.
Buxton has confirmed they are performing the work and that the goal is to
identify potential donors for Mr. Romney. The Romney campaign declined to
discuss on the record its work with Buxton Co.
There are no
records of payments to Buxton from Romney's campaign, the Republican National
Committee or a joint fundraising committee. Under federal law, companies cannot
use corporate treasury funds or resources, such as proprietary data analysis,
for in-kind contributions to federal campaigns.
It is not known at this time if the work
has been completed.
The effort by
Romney appears to be the first example of a political campaign using such
extensive data analysis. President Barack Obama's re-election campaign has long
been known as data-savvy, but Romney's project appears to take a page from the
Fortune 500 business world and dig deeper into available consumer data.
This may or may not be the first time
a presidential campaign has used this level of data analysis. President Barack
Obama's re-election campaign has also used data. The Romney campaign is using
the same technique as is used in the consumer market.
Buxton said he's
working for the Romney campaign because he wants "to be on the winning
team."
Tom Buxton says he supports Romney.
He once worked
with a former Romney business partner to provide insights, for example, about
where Petco should open a new pet-supply store to maximize profits. In addition
to Buxton, the data-mining project was described to the AP by a Romney
fundraiser who spoke on condition of anonymity because the fundraiser did not
want to face repercussions for describing internal campaign processes.
Buxton & Co. was once hired by an
un-named person who was once in business with Romney. The Buxton & Co.
provided marketing analysis for the best store locations for this un-named
person possibly for Petco stores. An un-named Romney fundraiser who spoke on
condition of anonymity described the project to the AP.
Businesses use
those kinds of analytics firms to answer key questions for clients, such as
where to build a retail store or where to mail pamphlets touting a new product.
The analysis doesn't directly bring in campaign contributions, but it generates
the equivalent of sales leads for Romney's campaign.
Marketing research companies like
Buxton & Co provide answers about marketing to the clients who hire them.
The analysis provided to the Romney campaign will not directly bring in any
contributions to the campaign. The Romney campaign may however use this
information to try to raise donations.
The project
relies upon a sophisticated analysis by powerful computers of thousands of
commercially available, expensive databases that are lawfully bought and sold
behind the scenes by corporations, including details about credit accounts,
families and children, voter registrations, charitable contributions, property
tax records and survey responses. It combines marketing data with what is known
in this specialized industry as psychographic data analysis, which tries to
ferret out Americans' consumer behavior and habits.
The Buxton Company will use computers
to analyze commercially available databases of information about people in the
USA. These records will contain financial data, census information, voting
registration and responses to survey questions. This data will be used to
determine the activity, interest, opinions, values and behavior of the public.
An early test
analyzed details of more than 2 million households near San Francisco and
elsewhere on the West Coast and identified thousands of people who would be
comfortably able and inclined to give Romney at least $2,500 or more.
Early analysis data has successfully
identified thousands of people on the West Coast who might be inclined to
donate to the Romney campaign. It has been determined by the data that some of
the donations may exceed $2500.
An AP analysis
this week determined that Romney's campaign has made impressive inroads into
even traditionally Democratic neighborhoods, collecting more than $350,000 this
summer around San Francisco in contributions that averaged $400 each.
High-dollar donors have been essential to Romney's election effort, unlike
Obama, who relies on more contributors giving smaller amounts.
The Romney campaign has collected more
than $350,000 in the traditionally Democratic San Francisco area. These
contributions have averaged $400 each. It is essential to both the Romney campaign
and the Obama campaign that they receive donations toward their re-election efforts.
The Obama campaign uses different fund raising
tactics than the Romney campaign.
Romney and the
GOP have out-fundraised Obama's re-election effort for the past three months.
The Obama re-election effort to raise
funds has failed for the last three months.
The fate of the
presidency may depend on who raises more money in the campaign, whose cost for
the first time is approaching $2 billion. That figure includes hundreds of
millions of dollars spent by super political action committees that accept
unlimited and in some cases effectively anonymous contributions from
millionaires, companies, labor groups and others to pay for television campaign
advertisements across the nation.
The cost of this election process, for
the first time is approaching $2 billion dollars. That figure includes dollars
spent by political action committees, anonymous contributions, companies, labor
groups and others. The money is used to pay for television campaign
advertisements across the nation. It is possible that the candidate who raises
the most money will win the election.
Buxton confirmed
that the data-mining project began with the help of Dick Boyce, Romney's former
Bain & Co. colleague, after Romney joined fundraising forces with the
Republican National Committee. Buxton expressed such confidence in his business
and analysis methods that, in nearly two decades of running his firm, he told
AP he has always been able to answer essential questions for customers.
Buxton confirmed that Dick Boyce, a
former colleague of Romney has helped to start the project. Romney has joined
fundraising forces with the Republican National Committee. Buxton stated his
company has been successful for 20 years.
"I can look
at data of any kind and say, 'I want to know who that $100 donor could
be,'" Buxton said. "We look at data of any kind."
Buxton said. "We look at data of
any kind." I can ask , 'I want to know who that $100 donor could be.”
Obama's campaign
employs its own form of data analysis to lure potential supporters, via
Facebook and Twitter, to fine-tune messages for supporters and potential
donors. The Obama campaign declined to comment on its internal fundraising
practices, although Buxton said it doesn't work with Obama's campaign.
Obama's campaign employs its own form
of data analysis of Facebook and Twitter, to acquire supporters and potential
donors. The Obama campaign declined to comment on its fundraising practices. Tom
Buxton said his company doesn't work with the Obama campaign.
Romney's campaign
has also been secretive about how it raises its money, and most fundraising
events have been closed to the press. Unlike Obama, Romney's campaign has
declined to publicly identify the names of major fundraisers, known as
bundlers, who have helped amass much of its money. Details of this project have
not been made public until now.
Like the Obama campaing the Romney's
campaign has also declined to comment on its fundraising practices. Unlike
Obama, Romney's campaign has declined to publicly identify the names of major
fundraisers. This is the first news report about the project.
Buxton is not
listed as a vendor in any of the campaign's finance reports submitted to the
Federal Election Commission, although some campaigns do not report expenses
until the vendor sends them a bill.
Some campaigns do not report expenses
until they are billed for them. It is unknown if Buxton & Co. has billed the campaign.
When AP initially
asked Buxton about its work for Romney, it declined to acknowledge that it
helped raise money for the RNC, even as its own website displayed a prominent
log-in page for "2012 presidential donor prospecting." That web
address contained the letters "RNC" — a common abbreviation for the
Republican National Committee. After the AP's continued questioning, the
company replaced the "RNC" letters in the web address with a generic
"campaign" the next day.
Tom Buxton declined comment on fund
raising for the RNC. The Buxton & Co. website displayed a log-in page for
"2012 presidential donor prospecting." That web address contained the
letters "RNC". "RNC" is a common abbreviation for the
Republican National Committee. The
letters "RNC" in the web address have been replaced with a generic
"campaign".
This is not
Buxton's first foray into politics: In 2006, the company produced 1,000 names
for a Connecticut campaign to meet a write-in ballot requirement, the Fort
Worth Star-Telegram then reported, and 900 of them signed up.
The Buxton Company has worked for
campaigns before. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported Buxton & Company’s
work for Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman was successful in 2006.
Few in Washington
campaign circles recognized the work of Buxton, although it lists thousands of
other clients in the public and private sector, including hospitals and local
governments.
Buxton & Co. is not well known in
Washington. Buxton & Co. has many clients both private and public.
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