I’ve written previously about how embedded Google, Inc. is with the Democratic Party and the Obamasphere in particular.
I was told by many that it was the stuff of tin-foil
hats to believe that Google was in the tank for Democrats.
They’re just working with clients after all! Why, Romney and Republicans
could’ve just as easily worked with them! This isn’t partisan!
Well, now, this is just in from
Bloomberg/Businessweek: Google Chairman Eric Schmidt,
one of Obama’s biggest boosters, is bankrolling a new for-profit endeavor being
run by former Obama tech staffers that will be working exclusively for
Democrats, as well as some corporate clients, in future.
“During the 2012 campaign, Barack Obama’s reelection
team had an underappreciated asset: Google’s (GOOG) executive chairman, Eric Schmidt. He helped recruit talent, choose technology, and
coach the campaign manager, Jim Messina, on the finer points of leading a large
organization. “On election night he was in our boiler room in Chicago,” says
David Plouffe, then a senior White House adviser.
Schmidt had a particular affinity for a group of engineers and statisticians
tucked away beneath a disco ball in a darkened corner of the office known as “the
Cave.” The data analytics team, led by 30-year-old Dan
Wagner, is credited with producing Obama’s surprising 5 million-vote
margin of victory.
Schmidt thought enough of the team that when
the campaign ended, he put up several million dollars to keep its core together
as a new consulting firm, Civis Analytics, run by Wagner and staffed by two
dozen of his former employees. They share ownership with Schmidt, its sole
investor.
The plan is to bring the same Big Data expertise that guided the
most expensive presidential campaign in history to companies and nonprofits.
“The model of innovation in technology are these very young teams that have a
brand-new idea, like each other, and work incredibly hard,” says Schmidt.
“Venture capitalists are competing all over for these people. When you find
them, you figure out what they want to do and you back them.” Or, as Wagner
puts it, “The Cave is incorporating.”
