What is "catalist"

Catalist is the name of a United States for-profit corporation that operates a voter database. It was founded in 2006 by Harold M. Ickes with seed money from George Soros. It specializes in microtargeting for Democratic political campaigns.

During the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign, Catalist served as the principal repository of Democratic data, working with over 90 liberal groups including the Service Employees International Union, the Democratic National Committee, and the 2008 Barack Obama presidential campaign.

Catalist has engaged in data mining on behalf of clients such as Rock the Vote and EMILY's List. Catalist receives funding from the Democracy Alliance.