Conservative List Valhalla

[This story originally appeared in the July 17 issue of The Weekly Report]

Many politicos know that the 2008 Obama presidential campaign set breathtaking new online campaign precedent in texting messages, grassroots organizing, message delivery and fundraising, much of which involved a much-touted list of more than 13 million viable email addresses.

But we bet very few people know that a few Minnesota Republicans have created a list for their side of the aisle that’s about double Obama’s.

The Minnesotans are highly respected national political consultants Tim Berkness and Scott Cottington. The two, and several others, are marketing their list — and their other political consulting services — through The Cottington Group.

Make no mistake about the list. As they tout here, in “Explore e-Fusion and e-Force,” (.pdf), “There is absolutely no other list like this available in Republican politics.”

As part of their proprietary lists (both snail mail and email) of 100 million people, they have culled a list of 25 million people who have opened and read conservative and/or Christian email messages. That’s an average of 55,000 conservative multi-openers per congressional district.

As the Republicans try to rebuild the party across the country, an increasing number of Republican groups are using the list to do all-important basics like small donor fundraising (which tends to fall off dramatically when a party is out of power in both Congress and the White House). As the 2010 campaigns heat up, the list will also be in high demand among GOP candidates and groups running independent, issue-focused campaigns.