An Explanation of What Bernie Sanders Staffers Actually Did and Why It Matters
If anyone is curious as to why Senator Sanders is firing people from his campaign, this is a full explanation from someone who actually knows the NGPVAN system. I'm including an excerpt of the most important passages, but read the whole thing.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2015_12/an_explanation_of_what_bernie059035.php
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The other important piece of information to note is the difference between a “saved search” and a “saved list.” NGPVAN’s voter tracking has the option of being dynamic or static, meaning that you can run dynamic searches of voters whose characteristics may change as NGPVAN’s data is updated, or you can pull static lists of voters who currently fit the profile you are seeking. Most voter data pulls within an NGPVAN campaign will be dynamic searches—and in fact, that is the default setting. You really only want to pull a static list if you’re doing something specific like creating a list for a targeted mail piece—or if you want a quick snapshot in time of a raw voter list.
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... the access logs do show that Sanders staff pulled not one but multiple lists—not searches, but lists—a fact that shows intent to export and use. And the lists were highly sensitive material. News reports have indicated that the data was “sent to personal folders” of the campaign staffers—but those refer to personal folders within NGPVAN, which are near useless without the ability to export the data locally.
Even without being able to export, however, merely seeing the topline numbers of, say, how many voters the Clinton campaign had managed to bank as “strong yes” votes would be a valuable piece of oppo. While it’s not the dramatic problem that a data export would have been, it’s undeniable that the Sanders campaign gleaned valuable information from the toplines alone.
I'm well aware that this isn't going to satisfy conspiracy theorist DUers who want to blame Hillary for the malfeasance of these Sanders staffers(*), but it does explain the reaction among the political operative community.
- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community
/ (*) Basically no one I'm aware of is holding Sanders himself responsible for what happened, but the scorched earth behavior of his fan club in response to the revelations is telling.
= new reply since forum marked as read
- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community
/ Let me repeat, as a die-hard Hillary supporter, that I'm not accusing Senator Sanders. He did the best he could with a bad situation. But pretending this is all a conspiracy on the part of the Clinton campaign, or DWS had no reason to be concerned, doesn't pass the smell test.
Gotcha. 
In reality though, most of the Hillary supporters posts have been written defending her from the wingnut conspiracy theories blaming her for this. And have been "carpet bombed" all over the DU. DU's front page has been filled with them ever since this came out, in fact.
The fact that fringe Sanders wingnuts (people who are embarrassing to Sanders himself) can't handle reality, and prefer your own make-believe world, really isn't the fault of the majority of Democrats. And it certainly has no bearing on the truth.
- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community
