Republicans are working to create critical databases and email lists. | M.Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO GOP techies fear losing by winning

SAN FRANCISCO — Republicans are in a technology pickle this November.

Win in the midterms and create a narrative that the party is finally on par with President Barack Obama and the Democratic data machine headed into the 2016 cycle.


But leading GOP techies warn that any success connected to gains in the House and Senate could bring a dangerous sense of overconfidence. They argue that there’s really much ground left to cover in creating the technological skills and gadgetry needed for future elections, especially a winning White House campaign.

“I have mixed feelings about this. If we win, I don’t want people to get complacent and think that we’re caught up, because we won’t be caught up all the way yet,” Andy Barkett, the Republican National Committee’s chief technology officer, said in an interview. “If we lose, it’ll probably create more momentum, but hopefully it won’t create too much churn and disruption.”

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Republicans have been trying to rebuild on the tech front since Mitt Romney’s 2012 Election Day debacle — working both inside and outside of official channels to create the critical databases and email lists that make up the guts for get-out-the-vote operations, fundraising and targeting of precise messages on issues appealing to both swing and base voters.

All the effort, though, hasn’t approached the sophistication of the Democratic tech team, which for two presidential cycles was centered around Obama and now has splintered off into a web that includes the Democratic National Committee and large and small consulting and data shops funneling resources into congressional campaigns and other causes.

“I think we’re 75 percent of where I expected us to be right now. Not 100 percent. And certainly not 100 percent of where we need to be,” said Barkett, a former Facebook engineer hired by the RNC to considerable fanfare in 2013.

On the Web, Republicans leave the impression that they have a digital army — young staffers routinely go up against their Democratic counterparts on social media and other message wars. On July 21, the RNC launched Poorhillaryclinton.com. On July 22, it took aim at Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

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But social media and attack websites are one thing — creating an effective technological backbone for campaigns is something else entirely.

Deep philosophical divisions still separate top GOP consultants and political operatives over the worthiness of digital campaign tools and the kinds of data analysis that Obama used to succeed. Old-guard backers of traditional TV ads and direct mail remain reluctant to cede tight campaign purse strings.

And the lack of tangible technology products has left some GOP party loyalists wondering what all the post-Romney hype was about.

“I’d just give the RNC an ‘incomplete-not enough info’ and see how it goes,” said Bret Jacobson, a partner at the digital consulting shop Red Edge. He does see some promise, though, because his clients have been “asking better questions in the last two years, and there is an overall increase in intellectual curiosity about how tech and politics can interplay.”

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Charles Cagnon, a San Francisco GOP official, tried to prompt a debate over the status of the RNC’s technology during a panel discussion earlier this month at a conference here of libertarian and conservative technology types. But his question to the Republican campaign strategists was met with uncomfortable silence and a suggestion that he speak to RNC officials like Barkett who also were in the room.

“Can you throw us a softball question first?” the panel’s moderator asked.

On the ground for the midterms, some Republican campaigns say they struggle to get a handle on what they need on the technology front. Part of it is just the inefficiencies associated with messy and hurried campaigns where time, money and resources are limited.

“There’s a spectrum of understanding. There’s a spectrum of execution,” said Mindy Finn, a digital consultant to the National Republican Senatorial Committee who worked on the Bush-Cheney 2004 technology team. “It is something that people are prioritizing, that they’re thinking about, that they’re putting a plan in place. Not just because I’m telling them to. But before I get there. My job is to help them make it happen.”

But Finn added, “You still have campaigns that aren’t using an internal system like a technology company would do for project management, so everyone knows what the other person is doing. They’re taking notes on paper, and that never goes anywhere.”

At the RNC, 40 staffers have been assigned to one of the key technology efforts, including Barkett and six engineers who work out of a satellite office in Silicon Valley. But many Republicans still wonder if hiring a big name from Facebook was more about getting good public relations to satisfy donors. The expectation is that there will be more upheaval at the RNC once the party picks a presidential nominee who gets the final say in determining what to do with all of the work Chairman Reince Priebus ordered up after Romney’s loss.

“There’s no long-term staying power there. And quite frankly, when you get a new chairman, you get new allies who come in and work and build these operations,” said one GOP data operative in Washington.

Barkett and other RNC officials pushed back against criticism of their effort, and they dismissed a Huffington Post article published in April that said Barkett would be taking a diminished role and could leave the RNC after the midterms. They complained that the story included an inaccurate characterization of Barkett’s role with the party; originally, he was wearing two hats as the RNC’s chief technology officer and also contracting out his services to Data Trust, a private company set up by the RNC.

Now back full time with the RNC, Barkett said he’s been “working on some projects that are in the realm of trying to get better at targeting voters, classifying voters, doing a better job of scoring who’s persuadable. Those are never-ending processes because you can always refine those models and make those better and better.”

“I’m actually spending a lot of time right now thinking about how do we try to create some continuity, continuity in the people and the projects that we’re working on, even though the focus and the types of applications may change a lot from the ’14 cycle to the ’16 cycle,” Barkett added.

Republicans explain that they have partially completed a real-time data and analysis tool — known as Beacon — that is now in the hands of all 50 state GOP parties.

“We never finished it, but we got that rolled out and it has a functionality that’s now in use,” Barkett said.

And Data Trust spokesman Chad Kolton cited a couple of recent partnership and technology announcements to demonstrate progress in getting data on 260 million Americans into the hands of major GOP digital firms, one-person consulting shops, multimillion-dollar outside groups and single-issue advocacy groups.

“We want to make sure that every cause, campaign, and organization on the right has the ability to make the most informed strategic decisions possible, regardless of political clout or available resources,” he said, adding: “We’ll judge our progress by the scoreboard after Nov. 4, rather than the volume of Democrat sniping.”

An RNC spokeswoman said the party is also working with nonpartisan technology firm NationBuilder in the construction of a new application that will improve data sharing among Republicans.

Democrats watching the unfolding GOP effort say the changes are largely window dressing.

“They seem to roll out a new name for something very regularly without any recognition that they just rolled it out six months prior,” said Michael Czin, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee.

For all the new Republican staffers who have climbed on board, Teddy Goff, digital director for Obama’s 2012 campaign, questioned whether the GOP problem is that they just don’t get technology.

“I don’t think what they have is fundamentally a personnel issue, but rather a philosophical one,” Goff said in an email. “As long as the values of that party remain completely out of alignment not only with the vast majority of tech/digital/analytics/etc., specialists in the U.S., but also with the very idea of using the internet to empower grass-roots supporters and engage more people in our democracy, they’ll continue to be at a disadvantage no matter how much they invest or whom they hire.”

Republicans concede they are at a disadvantage compared with Democrats because of the number of former Obama data geeks still helping their party’s candidates. But Ben Coffey Clark, a partner at Obama’s main 2012 digital firm, Bully Pulpit Interactive, said he’s still not counting out the GOP over the next two election cycles.

“In some ways, there are advantages to starting from scratch and not relying on legacy systems that don’t talk to each other in the most efficient manner,” he said. “Anyone who thinks the Republican Party is out of date because they haven’t been doing things doesn’t understand technology.”