A former Obama campaign data operative I talked to called it a pretty devastating loss, and others in the political data world said much the same. (People in that ever-so-analytical community are abuzz, but many declined to talk on the record.)
The DNC files are filled with public information no private information, à la credit card company hacks, would have been compromised here thats been gathered from various secretaries of state offices across the country. Those files contain names, addresses, elections voted in, and in some states, date of birth and gender.
Without access to these files, the Sanders campaigns ability to canvass voters in a targeted manner go to this house, but not that one is lost, as are its capabilities to create a tailor-made phone list to contact voters who are more likely to #FeelTheBern. It basically means Sanders staffers have to campaign like its 1999, and in this case, being old school is nothing to brag about.
Matt Klaber, a former developer at NGP VAN who also worked as the data director for John Edwardss New Hampshire operation in 2008, said the campaign was dealing with a pretty significant loss, though he said that its possible the Sanders organization could work around the problem in the short-term.
There might be lists of people to call that are still fresh, Klaber said, noting the campaign could have saved or printed lists outside the NGP VAN system.
But the long-term effects are alarming enough that the Sanders campaign filed a lawsuit in federal court on Friday seeking to re-gain access to the DNCs voter file, saying that the committee was attempting to undermine its campaign, and that the organization continues to hold our data hostage.
Plaintiff is sustaining irrrepable [sic] injury and financial losses, according to the Sanders campaigns complaint, that are incapable of precise calculation, but exceed $600,000.00 per day.
The our data phrasing by the Sanders team might seem antithetical to the idea that campaigns essentially rent the DNCs list for their purposes, but there are a couple of categories of data the Sanders team would be dealing with in the NGP VAN system. The big kahuna, the voter file that the firm has had a contract to manage since 2007, is the property of the DNC. Campaigns gather information from voters that serve to enrich this file who a caller says theyll vote for or whether a landline number is dead are seen as valuable tidbits and they agree to update the system after the campaign so that future candidates can use it.
But what probably angers Sanders and his people the most is being locked out of information theyve collected on potential Sanders volunteers. If a person whose door is knocked on says theyd like to volunteer for the campaign, thats quite a boon, and the campaign would store that information away in the system. When staffers were locked out of the NGP VAN system, they would have lost access to these files, Klaber said.
As for the breach itself, he said any developer expects bugs to happen, but said he had never seen one like this.
In my almost seven years there, he said, this kind of thing didnt happen.
