The battle for digital supremacy

Control of the Senate isn’t the only big prize for the November midterms. Bragging rights are also up for grabs in the deeply partisan arms race over who has the edge with political technologies.

Democrats hope the experience they’ve gained using data, social media and digital advertising in President Barack Obama’s two winning White House campaigns will pay off in 2014 and maybe even help save the day in some of their closest races. But with the playing field and technology budgets much smaller this cycle, Republicans insist they’re finally entering the home stretch at something close to parity. After all, both parties are blasting out carefully-crafted emails to potential donors. Both maintain they’re running pitch-perfect online ads that targets the undecideds not watching live TV. And both say they will be monitoring and responding to real-time data on early voting totals in the most critical battleground states.