non male questa storia...
Usa 2012, Romney cerca donatori con estensiva analisi dati personali
Washington (Usa), 24 ago. (LaPresse/AP) - Il segreto del successo di
Mitt Romney nella raccolta fondi? Una analisi segreta che passa al
setaccio le informazioni personali degli americani individuando quelli
a cui andare a bussare dà maggiori probabilità di ottenere una
donazione. Il candidato repubblicano ha affidato l'incarico a giugno
alla Buxton Co., una poco conosciuta società di analisi di Fort Worth,
Texas, legata a Bain & Co., una società di consulenza diretta da
Romney in passato. Oggetto della ricerca è scoprire repubblicani
economicamente ben messi che il partito non abbia già spremuto.
L'amministratore delegato dell'azienda, Tom Buxton, ha confermato di
essere impegnata in questo lavoro per Romney, ma l'organizzazione
della sua campagna non ha voluto commentare.
?BC-US--Romney's Money Hunt, 5th Ld-Writethru,1059<
AP Exclusive: Romney uses secretive data-mining<
AP Photo NY108, MNEV204<
%reldate(2012-08-24T20:35:26
Eds: Refines first sentence. With AP Photos.<
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Buxton said he's working for the Romney campaign because he wants
``to be on the winning team.''
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Romney and the GOP have out-fundraised Obama's re-election effort
for the past 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.
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.
``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.''
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
___
Associated Press news researcher Judith Ausuebel in New York
contributed to this report.
___
Contact the Washington investigative team at DCInvestigations(at)ap.org.
Follow Jack Gillum on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/jackgillum
