PACs to Share

RNC, GOP Candidates, Super PACs to Share Voter Data

By Patrick O'Connor

The Republican National Committee announced an agreement Thursday that allows the party access to data that a set of GOP presidential candidates and super PACs gather about voters.

The deal also allows the campaigns and PACs to use the RNC’s vast file of voter data and build on it as the campaign progresses. By accessing the RNC data, the candidates involved in the deal will begin the race with essentially the same access to the party’s biggest voter database, and the committee will benefit from information the campaigns gather about donors, volunteers and, most important, voters.

This could prove to be a potential boon for the party, if the primary stretches deep into April or May, because it would help the RNC gobble up information about voters in every state that holds a competitive nominating contest. Democrats used their fractious 2008 primary to build infrastructure in states where the party had not competed for the White House in years.

“These list exchanges will allow the RNC to benefit from enhancements made by these PACs and campaigns,” said RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, “so that the RNC, the eventual presidential nominee and Republican candidates up and down the ticket will have an even more robust data for use in the general election.”

Covered by the data agreements are entities backing Jeb Bush, Sen. Ted Cruz, Gov. Chris Christie, Carly Fiorina and Gov. Bobby Jindal, among others.

Despite campaign-finance laws that have diminished the role both parties play in electing candidates, the RNC remains the central clearinghouse for the party’s information about voters in all 50 states.

However, even that role is threatened by a company, named i360, which is working with campaigns and other outside groups to build a voter database that rivals, and may even surpass, the RNC’s. The two entities forged an agreement to share data heading into the 2014 midterm campaigns, but tension remains heading into the next presidential election, a contest in which highly specified information about voters will play an even more prominent role.