We have a new, major player in the wild and wooly big money campaign finance scene in a Limited Liability Corporation. Harold Ickes has founded a private firm called "Data Warehouse" that provides services to Democratic-oriented 527s, 501(c)s and PACs. The Campaign Finance Institute describes it in its August 2, 2006 Press Release titled "527 Political Organizations Raising Money at 2002 Pace, Down From 2004: Interest Groups Also Finance Efforts to Influence November Vote Via PACs, 501(c) Organizations and a Private Firm":

Joining in, and enhancing, the Democratic-oriented groups' electoral effort
is a new private firm, Data Warehouse, a Limited Liability Corporation. This
company is directed by Harold Ickes, a former head of the main Democratic 527s
in 2004, ACT and Media Fund, and longtime top Democratic Party strategist. Data
Warehouse receives support from its primary financier, who was the top donor to
527s in 2004, George Soros and other large investors associated with the
"Democracy Alliance," a wealthy donors' cooperative that finances
Democratic-oriented think tanks and advocacy efforts.5 Ickes stated6 that his
firm has a $10 million spending budget for 2006 (and $8.5 million for 2007) to
supply information to a wide range of "progressive" Democratic organizations
from a sophisticated national voter file, including e-mail addresses, historical
voting and commercial data. The company's budgetary costs are to be met by a
combination of its private capital contributions and nonprofit customer "user
fees"; the latter are not projected to be sufficient to enable the organization
to operate at a profit until 2010. Thus large private investment funds are
essential to help pay, on an ongoing basis, for the provision of voter files to
the customers, which include 527s, 501(c)s and PACs. Among the clients
specifically noted by Ickes were SEIU, AFL-CIO, League of Conservation Voters
and Sierra Club. Data Warehouse leases facilities to and is co-located in the
same office suite as America Votes Inc. and America Votes 2006, the two 527
organizations that are coordinating voter mobilization by the main
Democratic-oriented interest groups in 2006. Soros has also donated $1,490,000
to these organizations. America Votes has also paid Data Warehouse $125,000 to
subscribe to its service. This innovative joining together of private
investment, party expertise and the coordinated operations of nonprofit interest
group 527s, 501(c)s and PACs could mark yet another frontier of undisclosed but
effective campaign fundraising.

If this new enterprise is successful, you can bet the Republicans will follow suit in this continual big money race for major party electoral victories.

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