The Wages of Corruption

It turns out that the Democratic Party's decision to rely on private for-profit firms to run their data, has bitten the Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment) in the ass, because after private equity took over the operation, they are gutting it.

I'm sure that you are wondering why Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment) would structure their crucial get out the vote operations as a private operation completely separate from the normal party structures?

Silly rabbit, it's the corruption.  It makes it easier for the consultants to loot campaign donations.

The Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment) is deeply and profoundly corrupt.

There is nothing wrong with members of the Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment) making a decent living.  But this is just larceny:

The company in charge of the Democratic Party’s prized campaign technology tools announced its second round of layoffs in just under a year on September 6, slashing a total of nearly 350 jobs this year just as the 2024 elections ramp up.

In recent years, the privately owned monopoly over the Democratic Party’s voter data has changed hands from one for-profit company to another. Apax Partners, a global private equity firm, currently owns EveryAction and NGP VAN, the firms that house the Democrats’ suite of voter file, compliance, and organizing tools. Apax acquired them from another private equity firm in 2021, creating a new merged entity called Bonterra.

Last month, according to current and former employees, Bonterra cut at least 20 percent of its staff, more than 200 employees. Staff members across EveryAction and NGP VAN, which hold the Democratic Party’s most sensitive data, were cut. At least a quarter of the people laid off belonged to the union, 51 of them unit members from EveryAction and NGP VAN. At least half of the developers at ActionKit, a fundraising and customer relations management software acquired by EveryAction in 2019, lost their jobs. (Bonterra did not respond to a request for comment.)

………

For insiders, the decision to make deep cuts at certain parts of the operation suggests changes could be in store for the even more crucial parts of the company. There are alternatives to ActionKit, but fewer to NGP VAN, where Bonterra could cut more staff with little notice, said Tara Harwood, who was laid off from her role as ActionKit lead quality assurance engineer last month. “I really think that Bonterra is a menace to the sector,” Harwood said.

………

Democrats’ main concern should be with who owns the party’s most important campaign tech tools, said Michael Podhorzer, the former political director at the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, the nation’s largest union federation. “The problem,” Podhorzer said, “is when the monopoly is owned privately, like NGP VAN was, and can be sold to another company that doesn’t have the founder’s original commitment to the party or progressives.”

………

“I can share that the Dem party should be prepared to have NGP VAN staff ‘augmented’ by ChatGPT,” said a former NGP VAN staffer who was laid off last month and requested anonymity to protect professional relationships. As an autonomous unit, NGP VAN will be a saleable asset, Harwood added. “They could sell it to anyone,” she said. “They could sell it to Elon Musk, right? Why wouldn’t they?” 

Apax Partners has no reason to care about serving their customers.  They just wan their money.

To quote Ray Liotta as Henry Hill in the classic mob movie Good Fellas, it's all, "F%$# you, pay me."

Private equity would sell out their own mothers for some magic beans.

You need to keep this sh%$ in house.  You can license technology, but not data or its basic structure.