Last week, we featured the story regarding Barack Obama and Mitt Romney’s plans to start accepting donations via text messages, and other political efforts that involve social media.  Now we’ll take a look at how big data and the election go hand-in-hand.
Did you know that by using your social networking account, like posting what you bought, where you’ve been and where you’re eating, you’re putting a big bull’s eye target on your back?  I’m not talking about cyber attacks but another form of stalking all together.

According to the Associated Press, Romney’s campaign team is involved in a “secret data-mining project” that includes purchasing history and church attendance of people to learn who among the wealthy could be a possible donor to their campaign. But before you go berserk, this is something that has been happening for a long time now, but the difference is, data-mining companies do this for businesses, not politicians.

Romney is said to be using the services of Bain & Co., a company he once led.  Tom Buxton of Buxton Co. also confirmed that they’re aiding Romney in identifying potentially wealthy and previously untapped Republican donors across the country.  The Romney campaign team declined to comment.

Payment records made to Buxton, the Republican National Committee, or a joint fundraising committee from Romney’s campaign have not been found.  It’s not known if there are but under federal law, companies cannot use corporate treasury funds or resources, such as proprietary data analysis, for in-kind contributions to federal campaigns.

But it’s certainly easy enough to target potential donors with public data sets these days. The AP did a quick analysis of more than two million households near San Francisco and elsewhere on the West Coast which resulted to the identification of thousands of people who would be comfortable and able to give at least a $2,500 donation.

Another analysis made by AP was quite surprising, as Romney was able to get a $350,000 donation from Democrats.  Yes, you read that right, Democrats are now funding a Republican’s electoral campaign.

“An AP analysis this week determined that Romney’s campaign has made impressive inroads into even traditionally Democratic neighborhoods, collecting more than $350,000 this summer around San Francisco in contributions that averaged $400 each. High-dollar donors have been essential to Romney’s election effort, unlike Obama, who relies on more contributors giving smaller amounts,” AP’s analysis stated.

Right now, Romney has overtaken Obama in raising funds.