One thing the Republicans can't blame their November losses on is a lack of names. There are nearly 600 lists of Republicans, or lists used by Republicans to solicit donations and votes, compared with around 450 for Democrats, according to data compiled by DM services firm NextMark Inc.
The GOP rented the most expensive file listed when it sent solicitations to a 500-name offering from Entrepreneur magazine's Franchise 500. The Republican National Committee anted up a flat fee of $750, yielding a cost per thousand of $1,500. The most expensive list with any sort of volume was the Fortune magazine mail file, which boasts 669,588 names at $300 per thousand and was used by both the National Republican Senate Committee and the Republican National Committee.
In contrast, Democratic spending seems almost austere. The highest-price list used by the Democrats was the Affluent Advantage — Luxury Travel/High Net Worth Individuals mail file, which identifies 23 million prosperous consumers. (A number of more expensive international lists featuring African companies were caught up in the search, which didn't differentiate between the Democratic Party and the Democratic Republic of Congo.)
A peek at the lists each group used offers clues to party tactics. There are lists of red-meat Republicans (Flag-waving Republican Donors; Red State Republicans); files geared toward broadening the party base (Jewish Republicans; Spanish-speaking Republicans); sentimentality (in the form of a One for the Gipper list, in honor of President Reagan); and appeals to affluence (Silk Stocking Republican Donors; America's Richest Republicans).
If lists are any indication, the Democrats, too, were going for a mixture of diversity and affluence (Jewish High Dollar Democrats; Catholic High Dollar Democrats; $1,000+ Democrats; Hispanic Defenders of the Democratic Party).
The political list data was assembled by Joseph Pych, president of Hanover, NH-based NextMark. Pych describes himself as a political independent who's interested in the political process — how elections are run and candidates get the word out.
Pre-November 7, we asked him what he thought the outcome would be this year. Pych was right on the money: “Big wins for the Democrats.”
