An email from an Atlanta RP meetup member in Iowa

May I politely ask why this information wasn't disseminated to the forums YESTERDAY? I'll bet we could have come up with some type of help. Jeez.. this is beyond excuse and if someone at the campaign is responsible for this, firing needs to occur. But beyond that.. .for any member of this forum to know this was going on and not put out a call for help is beyond me.

Or was a call for help put out and I didn't see it, excuse me if that's the case but it doesn' t sound like it.

what a cluster...

Surely, had there been any word about this on the board yesterday, it would have been dealt with.

I am the OP of this thread. I received the email this morning, and I was so disturbed that I immediately came to these boards to post it.
 
In any event, the campaign has now put in place a great program for Precinct Captains, and the system prints out hard copy PDF lists for each Precinct Captain to use, as well as having a live database that can be shared.

The PDF list in my area is WAY out of date. I'm listed as a democrat and I haven't been registered as D for almost 3 years.
 
I don't know if this was sabotage or gross incompetence, but either way, somebody needs to get purged and steps put in place to prevent this disaster from occurring again. Meanwhile, it looks like headquarters is choosing to cover this up.

Ron tells us he is surprised that the campaign got this far. I can only speculate that his team is half-assed, and that he did not upgrade it enough once it became clear that, this time, the campaign had legs.
 
I don't know if this was sabotage or gross incompetence, but either way, somebody needs to get purged and steps put in place to prevent this disaster from occurring again. Meanwhile, it looks like headquarters is choosing to cover this up.

Ron tells us he is surprised that the campaign got this far. I can only speculate that his team is half-assed, and that he did not upgrade it enough once it became clear that, this time, the campaign had legs.


Why do you say that? Source?
 
Two things:

Make sure this doesn't happen anywhere else.

Find out who, in Iowa, was responsible for NOT backing up the data.

Question: Was this a list of Iowa donators to the campaign? If so, was it emailed to the local groups in Iowa?
 
I think the first priority is to find out how one person can compromise an entire database, leaving no backup.

Next Priority is to use this information to make sure that NONE of the next 49 turn out the same way.
 
Okay look

I'm Ben Hodges.

I never gave anyone permission to post this. This was a private email to family and friends that someone took without permission and posted all over the Internet, in some places (like DailyPaul) with all my contact information on it. I have since received countless phone calls and emails and I'm sick of it! I'm quite angry at whoever did this.

The bottom line on the sabotage:

It was more immaturity than anything else. The person responsible for the meltdown abandoned ship for ego reasons. He still sabotaged it, but it may not have been too premeditated. People were assigned to back up and check his work and were getting a lot of credit for it in the process. So this kid got pissed because he didn't think he'd get enough credit for his own work. So, because they wouldn't remove the people who were backing him up, he ditched the campaign and left the database a mess. Call it sabotage if you want. Call it bull-crap if you want. I think it's both now.

I just received this information.


To clarify: Some genius on here said all the database needed was a phone number. Oh if only the folks in Des Moines who stayed up all night before the caucus had you to consult! What an insult. It makes me sick.

Let's ponder for a second.

21,000 voters: each voter needs an easily referenced caucus location based on their precinct. Their precinct is based off of their zip code and street address. That's the bare minimum amount of needed information. We needed to be able to tell everyone where to go, who their precinct captain was, who their precinct chairman was, who to check in with upon arrival. We also needed the information organized in such a way that 300 kids could leave in about 60 cars to hit hundreds of precincts in an organized fashion, only calling and picking up people in the precincts they were responsible for.

There's much more in addition.

In any case, that's a lot of info, and much of it all got compromised in one way or another.
 
No source at all. Like I said, speculation. I had already seen many people here accuse headquarters of incompetence, and then I read this most startling thread!


Well, I don't have any idea what is actually going on at the campaign, but this is in another thread:

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paulette paulette is online now
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jake! View Post
I've been told by someone close to the campaign that this problem has been addressed and there will not be anymore database problems ("big-money" outside help has been brought in)

Quote:
That is good to hear. Can you be more specific about who you talked to and specifically what they said about how this problem would be addressed?
 
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I'm Ben Hodges.

The bottom line on the sabotage:

The person responsible for the meltdown abandoned ship for ego reasons. He still sabotaged it, but it may not have been too premeditated. People were assigned to back up and check his work and were getting a lot of credit for it in the process. So this kid got pissed because he didn't think he'd get enough credit for his own work. So, because they wouldn't remove the people who were backing him up, he ditched the campaign and left the database a mess. Call it sabotage if you want. Call it bull-crap if you want. I think it's both now.

In any case, that's a lot of info, and much of it all got compromised in one way or another.

Thanks for that post Mr Hodges. I take back my angry assertion of incompetence after reading this. Could you please tell us who this joker was? I think anyone that sabotages the campaign in this manner deserves the biggest scarlet letter our community can give. I don't care what the reason was. He hurt the campaign tremendously and would not be let off easily for it.
 
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Thanks for that post Mr Hodges. I take back my angry assertion of incompetence after reading this. Could you please tell us who this joker was? I think anyone that sabotages the campaign in this manner deserves the biggest scarlet letter our community can give. I don't care what the reason was. He hurt the campaign tremendously and would not be let off easily for it.

Things happen, but not like this. Hire some folks that are somewhat competent, for goodness sakes. They've been hiring young folks that don't have any experience. Why?
 
You people are disgusting for treating Ben this way. :(

You all owe him an apology.

He was one the most dedicated RP supporters I know.

Daily Paul should remove his contact information immediately and apologize.
 
In fairness, if he had bothered to get the word out of the sabatoge to the community earlier he would not have been flamed. He waited until he got spammed. I wish he had gotten around to telling everyone as soon as it happened. It would have gotten rid of some bad blood. On a personal note, I'm kind of glad that I was wrong and that it was sabotage as opposed to incompetence.
 
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so this means we got a strong turnout despite no way to organize them... makes our nubers more impressive
 
they said 13% decide to vote for paul at caucus

well - to look on the bright side... we still managed to bring out 10% of the vote. if they anticipated 17,000 people it looks like we got 11,600 without the additional effort, which if my math is correct is around a 68% turnout...which completely blows the competition out of the water!

whatever happenned to the database - it is easily corrected and 100% preventable in future states, whatever the cause.

I think our getting knowcked down a notch is the greatest thing that could have happened to us - now is not the time to get cocky and arrogant. we need to keep our game face on, and the eyes on the prize. lets not dwell on things we cant change - and attack full force the things we can.

i've dealt with meaghan before and i know her to be very passionate, and very competent, and very very upbeat. she will be a great resource as we move forward. i have full faith in her, and the other people in the campaign - to locate the problem and remedy it ASAP ;)

The CNN data said that 13% decide at the poll of pauls voters. So if that is the case he could have gotten 18,500 possibly....wow...that would have been earth shaking
 
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