DNC Chairman Tom Perez has asserted that everyone in his party wants to win; however, his latest fight with state party organizations makes his claim sound a bit absurd.
State and national DNC officials cannot agree on how to handle voter data that would be invaluable for any Democrat politician who wants to run for local, state or national office as everyone involved is demanding control over what is undoubtedly a valuable trove of information.
At present, Democrat state organizations control voter data and make money by selling it to their own party’s candidates. This money is then used to fund the state organizations. However, DNC Chairman Tom Perez wants the data placed in a data trust that would be a separate entity from the Democrat Party. The data would then be made available to all Democrat candidates as well as left-leaning special interest groups.
Mr. Perez argues that the Republicans have a similar structure, and that this structure was advantageous to President Donald Trump in 2016. State Democratic organizations have submitted a counter-proposal, saying that the data could be shared in real time but managed by state parties together with third party vendor TargetSmart, which is already a data contractor for many Democratic offices in the country. However, this proposal was clearly unacceptable to Mr. Perez and national DNC members who are pushing state party officials to accept their solution.
Naturally, the DNC wanted to keep the infighting out of the public eye; however, the spat has gone public as Mr. Perez wrote up an angry email that accused specific state party officials of undermining the DNC. Furthermore, Mr. Perez also threatened state organizations by telling them that they would not be able to use the DNC’s VoteBuilder online organizing platform if they did not yield to the DNC’s wishes.
State party officials have naturally reacted angrily to the email, calling the DNC chairman petulant and a bull in the china shop. They also accurately noted that the tone of the email has made it almost impossible for state and national party officials to continue negotiations in good faith. The infighting could not happen at a worse time as numerous Democrats are pondering 2020 presidential runs and would need to know how to access valuable voter data that could give their campaigns the edge needed to compete.
What is more, the now-public spat puts the DNC in a bad light as a party that cannot even handle a small argument in a spirit of good faith is certainly not prepared to lead a divided country.
It remains to be seen how the spat will play out. What is clear, however, is that state and national DNC members are far more divided than they were before. It has also become clear that the division is not just over data access, but also revenue. State organizations would lose revenue if forced to turn all its data over to the DNC; at the same time, elite DNC members would gain financially from having access to all the state organizations’ voter data.
Given the fact that significant amounts of money are at stake for all involved, there is likely to be more angry emails, accusations and comments from everyone involved. The division also makes it clear that the DNC and its members are clearly out of touch with the state Democratic organizations that they rely on to help local and state candidates win elections.
Instead of working with members of their own organization to win important elections, the national party members are attempting to assert control over these organizations by depriving them of much-needed cash. In short, they are acting like Democrats…
~ Liberty Planet
