FC: GOP consultant says mailing lists are often stolen in campaigns

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

********

Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2000 09:57:56 -0500
To: declan () well com
From: David McElroy <David () McElroy net>
Subject: Re: FC: Bradley consultant says she's not aware of email list rentals

I don't know if this would be of any interest to you or not, but I can tell
you from personal experience as a GOP consultant in Alabama that mail lists
are some of the most commonly stolen things on campaigns. Both postal mail
lists and e-mail lists tend to be copied by political operatives who find
it passing through their hands. In my experience, it's at least as rampant
as illegal software copying, simply because the lists are so valuable and
the copying is so easy.

In the case of certain snail mail lists -- especially the ones which aren't
otherwise available from a list broker -- there is a strong financial
incentive to copy a list. Many lists can be rented to campaigns (which
don't have any idea of the list's origin in many cases) for thousands of
dollars per campaign or use.

Just as an example, there is one particular list I know of that was paid
for by a national party organization whose name I won't mention. That list
was done for a state party, then it was taken by the state party's exec
director when he resigned. He then rented it out to his own clients while
he was a consultant, then a copy of the list passed on to another guy who
had access to it for one particular campaign two years ago. That list is
now available for rental to various candidates in the state, none of whom
know the history of the list. There's a possibility the a campaign I'm
associated with may end up using the list, because (after awhile) it
becomes a competitive disadvantage not to use the lists that are available
to others.

It's certainly a very wrong practice, but it's very rampant. It appears
that whoever pirated the Bradley list just did a great disservice to
Bradley's people by making it so obvious where the list came from. As
e-mail becomes more important to campaigns, those lists are going to be
pirated more and more, just as snail mail lists already are.

The only real solution is for campaigns and consultants to treat their
lists with the security they deserve. In my opinion, there is NO reason to
allow volunteers access to a database, at least not the sort of access with
which they can copy files. List security has improved in the last four
years (in the campaigns I've been around), but it's still not good enough.

David McElroy
Birmingham, Ala.

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