Kenneth P. Vogel and Darren Samuelsohn write at Politico:
Donald Trump’s rivals cling to the hope that the surprise GOP presidential front-runner lacks the know-how to lure supporters to the polls, but POLITICO has learned that his campaign several months ago assembled an experienced data team to build sophisticated models to transform fervor into votes.
The team is led by two low-profile former Republican National Committee data strategists, Matt Braynard and Witold Chrabaszcz, and includes assistance from the political data outfit L2, according to multiple sources familiar with the effort. The data push is focused on integrating information Trump has collected, through his campaign website and at voter rallies, on nontraditional or unregistered supporters. It also includes commercial data obtained from the RNC and other sources, in an effort to mobilize voters in key early states, the sources said.
Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, who has significant experience in voter registration, declined to comment on the data program. “We don’t discuss internal procedures; however, Mr. Trump has been underestimated through every step of this campaign, to many people’s demise,” said Lewandowski, who ran a pilot registration project for Americans for Prosperity in 2014.
Michael Calderone reports at
The Huffington Post:
Donald Trump doesn't need to buy media exposure.
Television networks have given Trump the most attention this election cycle due to a unique mix of celebrity, accessibility, front-runner status and propensity for making outrageous and offensive remarks. But Trump, claiming his campaign is $35 million under budget, pledged last week to spend $2 million a week on ads, with the campaign on Monday placing its first order for spots in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Before early state voters stumbled across Trump's ad on local stations, national news networks had already broadcast it dozens of times, beginning at 5:30 a.m. Monday. Over the next 24 hours, Fox, MSNBC and CNN ran the ad 60 times, according to a HuffPost tally using monitoring service TVEyes. Networks most commonly played the ad in full, though the tally includes partial airings in news segments.
