I’m running for Utah County Vice Chair because I see an opportunity to make a tangible difference in the party. Nationally the GOP has been consistently out-maneuvered by Democrats who understand the importance of “Big-Data Analytics” – the technique or merging consumer (or voter) data from different sources and using it to gain deeper insights into the needs and sentiments of the target audience. Barack Obama has built a political machine that has mastered the art of merging data from social media, surveys, volunteers, robo-calls and field events to gain actionable insights into voter sentiments and behavior. By contrast, in 2012, the Romney campaign couldn’t even merge it’s volunteer list with it’s voter database to avoid having volunteers call volunteers to enlist support!
A recent internal audit by the national party highlighted these deficiencies and the need to take Big-Data seriously. As the Senior Manager of Digital Analytics for Hewlett-Packard and former Senior Solutions and Best Practices Consultant for Omniture-Adobe, I believe that I am in a position to help.
In my experience, the challenge of Big Data Analytics is not so much a technology problem as it is a leadership issue. Building a data driven organization requires executive sponsorship, solid governance, clear processes and of course experience. I intend to use the Vice Chairmanship as a platform to evangelize a party-wide data strategy that leverages the foundation that Kirby Glad has created with “Voter-Click” and merges it with the excellent voter information that many talented Precinct Chair and Vice Chairs have already been working to assemble. Furthermore Id like to work with our education officers to share Best Practices with newer precinct leaders so that everybody understands how to obtain detailed voter sentiment and to share it with the party. This will allow us to meet voters where they are and to help lead them down the path from targets, to supporters, and finally into advocates!
Today the County party gives money to local campaigns which is a good start, but our most valuable resources are our voter database and our volunteer network. With the right leadership and by being more proactive in the way we manage these resources, I believe we can deliver to our local candidates something infinitely more valuable than money (an invigorated volunteer base with actionable business intelligence) and in the process become an operational example for the state and national parties.