After Republican David Jolly won a closely watched House race in Florida earlier this month, the National Journal reported that he did so with the help of a new voter database called Honeybadger. The system has such a real-time component that the GOP was able to assess early balloting, figure out which message motivated those voters the most, and then tailor that pitch to everyone else to make sure they turned out to vote. The winning message? Nancy Pelosi, hands down.
"We had a lot of high-probability folks left, so if we were able to focus our message properly, we could create a surge, or amplify it," explains an NRCC official. "Once we switched to that script across the board, that's when the surge started. That was late February." This nugget is highlighted in a post at the conservative IJReview, which loves it. "When presented with the grim reality that every time a Democrat wins a House race, Pelosi edges closer to once again becoming Speaker of the House, Republican voters recoil in fear, according the NRCC." (More NRCC stories.)