Joe Biden

In theory, you're not supposed to scrape the FEC data in order to do fundraising. Whether the FEC data gets scraped by a voter file company, gets passed on and reformatted into something, the data finds its way to places. And for purposes, that's not really the intention. But it's also just campaigns straight up making their data available to a brokerage of

likely donor, likely democratic supporter, et cetera, data. And so it's the model where, unfortunately, where we are right now is that the digital experience of email and SMS has the market around your data has come to look like the direct mail market, where there are just these lists being passed around by different shops. And people just blast away at it.

likely donor, likely democratic supporter, et cetera, data. And so it's the model where, unfortunately, where we are right now is that the digital experience of email and SMS has the market around your data has come to look like the direct mail market, where there are just these lists being passed around by different shops. And people just blast away at it.

And so the consulting firm or the mail house or data firm makes money and you get bombarded with lots of texts and emails and they don't even really need it to have a high response rate, right? As long as you get a couple, it's cheap to do and then you're off to the races and doing this thing. The problem with it though is that obviously it's a terrible experience for the end user of the donors.

And so the consulting firm or the mail house or data firm makes money and you get bombarded with lots of texts and emails and they don't even really need it to have a high response rate, right? As long as you get a couple, it's cheap to do and then you're off to the races and doing this thing. The problem with it though is that obviously it's a terrible experience for the end user of the donors.

And it doesn't actually build a good file for your campaign because you might have somebody respond to an initial message. But if they're not in your district, they're not following your race, they're not actually part of a community that you're building around your campaign, they're not likely to give again.

And it doesn't actually build a good file for your campaign because you might have somebody respond to an initial message. But if they're not in your district, they're not following your race, they're not actually part of a community that you're building around your campaign, they're not likely to give again.

And what happens is that even donations that you get in in that first sort of wave of a mass of prospecting, you wind up with a lot of unsubscribes with a lot of people who don't ever give again. Right.

And what happens is that even donations that you get in in that first sort of wave of a mass of prospecting, you wind up with a lot of unsubscribes with a lot of people who don't ever give again. Right.

Yeah, you're replying stop to that campaign, and usually they'll follow your request to stop. But the consultant that put your data in that campaign's file is obviously not going to stop. Can you explain what a scam pack is and how it works?

Yeah, you're replying stop to that campaign, and usually they'll follow your request to stop. But the consultant that put your data in that campaign's file is obviously not going to stop. Can you explain what a scam pack is and how it works?

There are operatives who run shops that produce mail or digital services or technology or data, and they set up packs that look like they're going to do something, right, to help Democrats win or this kind of Democrat or fight on this issue. And really what happens is it becomes a self-licking ice cream cone for the consultant.

There are operatives who run shops that produce mail or digital services or technology or data, and they set up packs that look like they're going to do something, right, to help Democrats win or this kind of Democrat or fight on this issue. And really what happens is it becomes a self-licking ice cream cone for the consultant.

So it's raising money but spending basically all of its money on raising the money for the consultants and operatives who set it up. You're right. It's really awful. And also, I mean, I think they're –

So it's raising money but spending basically all of its money on raising the money for the consultants and operatives who set it up. You're right. It's really awful. And also, I mean, I think they're –

Yeah, there are cases where that's the candidate. There are cases, though, also where the candidate is making choices to run a very high overhead fundraising program that not every candidate needs to or should be an expert in fundraising practices. But a lot of times you can have campaigns that get taken for a ride and wind up paying a considerable portion of their overhead to the consultants.

Yeah, there are cases where that's the candidate. There are cases, though, also where the candidate is making choices to run a very high overhead fundraising program that not every candidate needs to or should be an expert in fundraising practices. But a lot of times you can have campaigns that get taken for a ride and wind up paying a considerable portion of their overhead to the consultants.

Peer-to-peer texting is when you have a group of volunteers who are willing to do something for you. You provide them a software tool where they can log in and send pre-filled out texts to a pre-selected list of voters or prospective donors or whatever that is.

Peer-to-peer texting is when you have a group of volunteers who are willing to do something for you. You provide them a software tool where they can log in and send pre-filled out texts to a pre-selected list of voters or prospective donors or whatever that is.

And it is something that if a campaign doesn't want to necessarily get tagged or an organization doesn't necessarily want to get tagged with