CA Combining Shopping and Voting Data

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Malin, Bradley A" <[email protected]>
Date: October 27, 2006 8:36:17 PM EDT
To: David Farber <[email protected]>
Subject: CA Combining Shopping and Voting Data

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/10/26/schwarzenegger.consumers.ap/ 
index.html

California shoppers, Schwarzenegger is watching you
POSTED: 2:54 p.m. EDT, October 26, 2006

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Gin or vodka? Ford or BMW? Perrier or  
Fiji water? Does the car you buy or what's in your fridge say  
anything about how you'll vote?

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign thinks so.

Employing technology honed in President Bush's 2004 victory, the  
Republican governor's re-election team has created a vast computer  
storehouse of data on personal buying habits and voter records to  
identify likely supporters. Campaign officials say the operation is  
the largest of its kind in any state, at any time.

Some strategists believe consumer information can reveal a voter's  
politics even better than a party label can.

"It's not where they live, it's how they live," said Josh Ginsberg,  
the Schwarzenegger campaign's deputy political director.

The idea is an outgrowth of techniques that businesses have long used  
to find new customers. Using publicly available data, the Bush  
campaign in 2004 knew voters' favorite vacation spots, religious  
leanings, the music and magazines they liked, the cars they drove.

Few people might realize how much information is publicly available,  
for a price, about their lifestyles. Companies collect and sell  
consumer information they buy from credit card companies, airlines  
and retailers of every stripe.

Using microtargeting, as the practice is known, Bush's campaign  
teased out supporters in swing states such as Ohio. Schwarzenegger --  
whose political operation is run by two Bush veterans, campaign  
manager Steve Schmidt and strategist Matthew Dowd -- is ripping a  
page from that book.

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