Tag Archives: connect

Romney’s polling day technology meltdown: Orca

By Mark Pack | Mon 12th November 2012 - 11:53 am

The usual post-electoral defeat search for explanations and people to blame has an added edge for the Republicans after Mitt Romney’s defeat earlier this month. Not only did Romney lose, he lost in all the states that were picked as being in serious contention, the Republicans actually lost ground in the Senate (when they had hopes of making gains) and the initial voting analysis shows the Republicans with a big problem: the parts of the electorate that are growing are the parts which vote against them the most heavily.

Posted in Campaign Corner and Online politics | Also tagged barack obama, Mitt Romney and Orca | 6 Comments

Opinion: How CONNECT helped hold Chelmsford

By Nick Edwards | Thu 5th July 2012 - 2:23 pm

On Thursday 28th June, activists from all over the country and beyond helped secure two vital by-election wins in Chelmsford. Stephen Robinson was elected to the Chelmsford North division of Essex County Council, and Paul Bentham for the Patching Hall ward on Chelmsford City Council. In both elections, the Conservatives were well beaten into second place.

Stephen said:

I am extremely grateful to everyone who helped us make this victory possible. Having so many activists available helped us secure the legacy of long-serving Lib Dem incumbent Cllr. Tom Smith-Hughes, who sadly died earlier in the year.

Saffron Walden Constituency Chairman Nick Edwards, …

Posted in Council by-elections | Also tagged paul bentham, stephen robinson and Tom Smith-Hughes | 2 Comments

‘How can Lib Dems avoid oblivion?’ asks PoliticsHome

By Stephen Tall | Sun 18th March 2012 - 10:38 am

Over at PoliticsHome, Mark Gettleson puts Lib Dem campaigning under the microscope to ask what the 2015 general election might hold for the party. He makes four points:

1. In 2010, the Lib Dems won the air war and lost the ground war

There had been an uncoordinated increase in votes – around a million – largely in seats they were not going to win. But what was clear was that the party lacked the kind of national organisation into which to feed the volunteers of Cleggmania, the ability to measure success in given seats (few saw the loss of Harrogate

…

Posted in News | Also tagged general election 2015, mark getteleson and tim farron | 38 Comments

Opinion – Twitter: powerful campaign tool or waste of effort?

By Alan Muhammed | Thu 9th February 2012 - 2:55 pm

The simple tweet “F*ck” at 10am with the reply “Agreed” last Friday was the only source and all the evidence I required to know that Chris Huhne had been charged. Two words tied emotion with cognition. I followed Nick Clegg’s tax cut speech live through the medium of 140 character paraphrase: a sort of Focus-speak reduction I can only imagine would have the speech-writers crying. The utterance “Borgen – Danish West Wing” was all the persuasion necessary to watch it religiously.

Twitter is free, fast and tragic. And if it wasn’t powerful in facilitating the fall of …

Posted in Online politics and Op-eds | Also tagged jamie matthews, julian huppert, tim farron, twitter and victor chamberlain | 3 Comments

Jake Holland writes: Connect is here to help you win

By Jake Holland | Wed 16th November 2011 - 3:25 pm

All Liberal Democrat campaigners will agree that there’s no worse feeling at the end of a hard-fought election campaign than losing by a handful of votes.

In the 2010 General Election, we were less than 1000 votes away from winning in 10 constituencies. Analysing these results, it was clear that our campaign technology had fallen behind the other two main parties. Tasks that our opponents took for granted, such as linking a campaign system directly to a website, or organising a nationwide volunteer phone bank, were beyond our capabilities.

Connect is the cutting edge in campaign technology that will put us …

Posted in Online politics and Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged barack obama and tim farron | 6 Comments

Moving to CONNECT

By Mark Pack | Thu 3rd November 2011 - 4:25 pm

The all-member edition of Liberal Democrat News recently posted out included this piece from myself about the party’s new electoral database software, CONNECT:

One of the big talking points amongst party activists at the Birmingham conference was CONNECT, the party’s new electoral database software which was put through many demonstrations to different groups of future users – data officers, treasurers, campaign organisers and so on.

Like others, I am impressed by its ability to make what we have tried to do in the past easier, more effective and quicker – especially given my experience using existing systems since the 1990s and also …

Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged mark sullivan and VAN | 1 Comment

Free casework software coming for ALDC members

By Mark Pack | Mon 24th October 2011 - 8:53 am

A great new benefit is on the way for members of ALDC, the Liberal Democrat body for councillors and campaigners – access to the CONNECT database’s casework system.

Starting early in 2012, all ALDC members will get access to CONNECT’s casework facilities for free (or rather, for no extra charge beyond their ALDC membership subscription). It is a logical extension of ALDC’s similar free provision of its MyCouncillor blogging system and will make a good system available to thousands of councillors.

One of the nice touches of …

Posted in Local government and News | Also tagged aldc, ears, mark sullivan and VAN | 2 Comments

Mark Sullivan on how his firm’s software helps win elections

By Mark Pack | Sat 1st October 2011 - 9:25 am

Earlier in the week I blogged my interview with Mark Sullivan, who founded the firm that is supplying the party’s new CONNECT electoral database software. For some further background on him and his firm, here’s an interview Mark Sullivan gave in late 2008:

Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged mark sullivan and VAN | 2 Comments

Interviewing Mark Sullivan, the founder of the party’s new electoral database supplier

By Mark Pack | Thu 29th September 2011 - 10:25 am

During the Liberal Democrat conference in Birmingham, I had the chance to quiz Mark Sullivan (the founder of VAN, which is becoming the party’s new electoral database software under the name CONNECT).

I’m (like others) excited about the possibilities CONNECT will bring, partly because I’ve worked with EARS for just about two decades now. It has helped produce some stupendous election results and people involved with it have worked tremendously hard. But it also has some major limitations, particularly the number of bugs (including more than once data being lost on polling day), the haphazard record of delivering new …

Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged ears, featured, mark sullivan and VAN | 15 Comments

The countdown to Connect has begun

By The Voice | Tue 30th August 2011 - 4:13 pm

News from Lib Dem HQ of the Liberal Democrats’ new campaign software:

Campaigning across the party is set to get a major boost when Connect comes online later this year. Connect is the UK version of the world’s leading campaign software that’s being built for the party by Voter Activation Network (VAN).

It is based on the tried and tested technology successfully used by Barack Obama and the Democrats in the US and in several other countries around the world. Connect combines high level security and stability, powerful campaigning tools …

Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged barack obama, ed davey, jake holland and VAN | 18 Comments

Nick: "Jobs are right at the heart of the Lib Dems’ agenda"

"Lib Dems set to name 7 new peers for House of Lords"

EU in/out referendum bill - will Lib Dem MPs abstain?

The Morrissey Report: "No excuses" says Caron Lindsay

Tag Archives: connect

Romney’s polling day technology meltdown: Orca

Opinion: How CONNECT helped hold Chelmsford

‘How can Lib Dems avoid oblivion?’ asks PoliticsHome

1. In 2010, the Lib Dems won the air war and lost the ground war

Opinion – Twitter: powerful campaign tool or waste of effort?

Jake Holland writes: Connect is here to help you win

Moving to CONNECT

Free casework software coming for ALDC members

Mark Sullivan on how his firm’s software helps win elections

Interviewing Mark Sullivan, the founder of the party’s new electoral database supplier

The countdown to Connect has begun

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Nick: "Jobs are right at the heart of the Lib Dems’ agenda"

"Lib Dems set to name 7 new peers for House of Lords"

EU in/out referendum bill - will Lib Dem MPs abstain?

The Morrissey Report: "No excuses" says Caron Lindsay

Tag Archives: connect

1. In 2010, the Lib Dems won the air war and lost the ground war

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