63 Magazine - Issue 1

“I used to have an orchestra teacher
who would wave his baton in the air to
demonstrate to the audience that he can’t
make a sound unless he has an orchestra
full of musicians who can play. The
analytics team isn’t exactly like an orchestra
conductor – maybe more like the guy who
tunes the piano. You can be the best piano
tuner in the world. If nobody plays the
instrument, nothing happens.”
2) Data: The data collected by volunteers
and field organizers is among the most
valuable data the analytics team has. Your
data tells analysts who was canvassed, who
they support, how likely they are to vote,
what their most important issue is, and
much more.
The data collected from door knocks and
phone calls placed by volunteers is critically
important. For instance, it’s a major input
into model scores. In addition, organizers
provide both a gut-check and a test-bed for
the conclusions and recommendations that
analysts develop. If analysts have made a
mistake, organizers are often the first to
show them that something is not right.
Well, there you have it. Now we know
what an analytics department does, how
their work affects your work, and how
your work affects theirs. (*Alice’s note:
Though I’m still not exactly sure what they
do on their computers to deliver all this,
and I’m pretty sure I’ll never know.)
If you’re interested in possibly working on
an analytics team in the future, here are
some basic steps you can take to prepare
yourself:
•Learn MS Excel very, very well. This
will help you organize as well!
VLOOKUPs, pivot tables, and text
columns are extremely versatile.
•Learn SQL.
•Consider taking a couple statistics
courses (after election day, obviously).
•Learn a good statistics program. R
and Stata are the most commonly
used options in politics, and SPSS is
common among pollsters.