A information security bug led to a Democratic party fuss this week , unadulterated with a lawsuit , and accusations of detection and sabotage hurled between campaigns . I did n’t know it was possible to make Bernie Sanders more ornery , but here we are !
Here ’s what you call for to have it off about the conflict , and why elector data played such a cock-a-hoop role :
Presidential candidates need money to campaign . A screwing ton of money . To get cash , they trust on political activeness committees and private donations . Some political military action committee have been called Super PACs since campaign contribution limits were vary in 2010 . Bernie Sanders has distanced himself from Super PACS as a political stance , since they can admit outright embodied donations . For Sanders , they symbolize a nasty pains of safari finance putridness . The Sanders campaign , more than its rivals , relies on individual donations to keep chugging along .
sander , Clinton , and other candidates use voter database to target people they can hit up for those donations . These databases are n’t just “ John Doe , Chicago , registered Democrat . ” They can be way more specific and elaborated , as the Washington Postpointed out : “ John Doe , Chicago , registered Democrat , donate $ 1k to Obama in 2008 , divorced , 48 ” etc . etc . etc . Knowledge is power is money is winning is the grounds why these database are of the essence to presidential aspirant .
Sanders and Clinton both use a service provided by a company called NGP VAN to see the precious information compiled by the Democratic National Committee — but each cause can add extra datum into the voter lean on top of what NGP VAN provides . For instance , Clinton ’s movement could add that John Doe was divorced , while sander ’ campaign could dig up his donation history . The Clinton campaign could cognise more about certain pool of voter than the Sanders effort , and vice versa — and it sure as hell would n’t secern the Sanders campaign about the extra information it had , since that ’d be giving valuable help to a direct competitor .
This week , a staff member or group of staffer from the Sanders campaign noticed that they could see the Clinton cause ’s data . We do n’t bonk precisely what they saw , but at least one staff member was fired . The Sanders drive arrogate this happened because of a “ dropped firewall . ”
Bloombergreported last nightthat the Clinton crusade had conducted an audit on the information to economize some of that data :
fit in to an audit obtained by Bloomberg , Sanders staffers exploited a temporary glitch in the DNC ’s elector database on Wednesday to save lists created by Hillary Clinton ’s campaign . Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon told reporter there were “ 24 intrusion attempt ” by the Sanders campaign . He and Mook assert that the Clinton drive did not take advantage of the bug to reckon at Sanders ’ data point .
NGP VAN gavea statementthat code it released “ hold in a bug ” and emphasized that the Sanders movement could briefly see some of the Clinton safari ’s proprietary data , but that it could n’t download or export it . The proficient detail have n’t come out , but fundamentally : The Sanders campaign could lurk on orphic Clinton political campaign data because of a technical problem .
This did not go over well with the Clinton political campaign . Here ’s a tweet from her pressure secretary :
If you are so lofty of your grassroots organization , you should not need to resort to steal campaign data .
— Brian Fallon ( @brianefallon)December 18 , 2015
It did n’t go over well with the DNC either . In fact , DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz straight - up called it larceny . “ That is just like if you walked into someone ’s home when the door was unsecured and remove thing that do n’t belong to you in monastic order to practice them for your own benefit . That ’s inappropriate . Unacceptable , ” shetoldWolf Blitzer .
The DNC cut off the Sanders safari ’s access to the database , which is like ripping a fiddling liberal hog away from give suck a money - teat . Without that database , the Sanders campaign ’s chief modality of fundraising was screwed , which is why Sanderssuedthe DNC , charge it ofsandbagging his campaignby choke his fundraising elbow grease .
“ The DNC , in an inappropriate overreaction , has denied us access to our own data , ” Sanders campaign managing director Jeff Weaversaidat a press conference Friday . “ In other discussion , the leaders of the Democratic National Committee is actively trying to undermine our crusade . ”
Late last night , the DNC and Sandersreached an agreement . Sanders got his access back , and his drive agreed to cooperate with an investigation .
Meanwhile , the next Democratic argument is scheduled for tonight , and there ’s a good chance this data - snatching commotion will come up . Now you ’ll know what they ’re sniping about it if does — and why the voluntary calling and asking you to donate is so all-fired underhanded - knowledgeable about your easygoing spots .
update to admit more detail about Super PACs and to include Bloomberg ’s audited account reporting
Image : AP
Bernie SandersDataHillary Clinton
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