Liberal and Democratic-leaning groups, facing a difficult midterm election next year without the technological muscle of the Obama campaign behind them, are preparing a major effort to improve their data infrastructure. …
The initiative, as yet unnamed, will be based at Catalist, a for-profit cooperative founded in 2006 by Harold Ickes, a former aide to Hillary Rodham Clinton, and others.
The group serves as a kind of data hub for dozens of labor unions, liberal advocacy groups, super PACs and Democratic Party organizations, maintaining a shared national voter file that is continually updated with commercial and consumer data. …
Much like Republican and conservative groups, Catalist is seeking reams of data on voters that can be seamlessly integrated with polling and advertising and used across a range of platforms. CONT.
Nicholas Confessore, New York Times