Mahal Moves to Aristotle, Sales Star Brings Experience, Reputation, Contacts, Joins Former FEC Chairman David Mason at #1 Rated Firm

WASHINGTON, June 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Aristotle this week consolidated its growing dominance of the competitive market for powerful political technology solutions by recruiting Arry Mahal, the Senior Sales Executive from rival Capitol Advantage.  The firm announced that Mahal has joined Aristotle as the company's Director of PAC and Grassroots Sales.

At Capitol Advantage, which CQ/Roll Call Group paid $43 million to acquire in 2008, Mahal was credited with the highest annual sales by revenue and by customer count for 12 years in a row.  Aristotle has been steadily expanding its PAC, grassroots and political technology business which features integrated voter and donor lists and professional services.  

Earlier this year, a respected independent survey conducted annually by the Washington-based Public Affairs Council, showed that PAC and Grassroots professionals who subscribe to services from one of the 'Big Four' providers rated Aristotle customer care and technology superior to VOCUS, DDC and CQ-Roll Call Group-Capitol Advantage. In the survey, Aristotle received top grades in all four of the categories in which the four firms' customers were asked to rate their vendor's software, training, customer service and follow-up.

The survey respondents also spent significantly less on Aristotle in the categories reported. "Initial Cost" savings by Aristotle customers averaged between $7,200 and $20,193. On "Annual Renewal and Maintenance Cost" Aristotle customers responding to the survey reported additional savings of $7,778, $27,078 and $16,828 as compared to VOCUS, DDC and CQ/Roll Call Group/CapAd customers, respectively.

"We are very, very pleased that Arry has joined Aristotle" said CEO John Aristotle Phillips.  "He has an excellent reputation with clients.  He really understands the market.  And he is a leader.  His skills will perfectly compliment what customers have said are Aristotle's superior software, training, customer service and follow-up."

The #1 customer rating and the move by Mahal to Aristotle follows the decision in March by the Federal Election Commission to close the file without taking action on a rival's complaint about Aristotle's powerful data-mining technology (www.fec.gov). Prior to the FEC vote, Aristotle filed a patent on the means by which the company's software integrates information from millions of contributor and voter records with a campaign's, PAC's or advocacy group's membership lists.

"Great people and great products build great companies" said Phillips.

"I look forward to working with Aristotle, a recognized industry leader with strong customer service and product quality," said Mahal. "This is a great opportunity to bring Aristotle products to new customers and to expand their work with existing customers."

Aristotle has been expanding its advocacy and PAC teams with key hires that focus on political advocacy campaigns that require sophisticated data mining of voter, donor and stakeholder datasets.  In another major coup, it was announced recently that former Federal Elections Commission Chairman David Mason had also joined Aristotle's Professional Services team in June.

The company's clients are equipped with training and software that leverages highly accurate stakeholder databases and detailed state contributor and voter lists to illuminate exactly how much someone has given, how much they can give, and to suggest the maximum they might agree to contribute where allowed by law. The patent application covers a method by which political professionals can access, mine and harness supporter, voter and contribution disclosure records in a manner consistent with the law and for compliance purposes, rendering the exact information political professionals require.

The Aristotle patent application, prepared by DLA Piper, is entitled: Integration of Voter and Contributor Data Into Political Software and Compliance Systems for Purposes of Solicitation, Compliance, Vetting and Calls to Action.

"We show you the money." said Phillips. "The biggest sin in fundraising is not to ask. The second sin is not to ask for enough. With the state contributor and voter files, fundraisers for PACs and campaigns will never again overlook a prospect, or leave money on the table by asking for too little. With this technology, PACs and advocacy groups will raise much more money than ever before." http://www.aristotle.com/show-me-the-money.html While Aristotle's technology delivers significant advantage in terms of grassroots mobilization and solicitation, the software was designed to allow PACs and campaigns to comply with Federal Election Commission restrictions and state laws impacting campaigns and contributor databases.(1)

CQ-Roll Call Group, which owns Capitol Advantage, and in turn is owned by British media giant Economist Group, suffered a setback in May when a federal court rejected confidentiality claims concerning its partnership with so-called Democratic firm NGP Software Inc. The United States District Court for the District of Columbia generally agreed that there was "no good faith basis whatsoever" for the parties to ask the Court to keep their business relationship secret.

Since 2007, Capitol Advantage LLC had fought to keep its partnership agreement with NGP under seal in a lawsuit between NGP and non-partisan rival Aristotle International, Inc. Under the now partially unsealed "PAC Partnership Agreement", CapAd was authorized to sell NGP's software to "corporations, trade associations and right-leaning 527s".

Aristotle has alleged in court that NGP has for years deceptively marketed itself by falsely claiming to serve "only Democrats and their allies", and NGP has filed counterclaims.  NGP now appears to have removed such marketing claims from its website.

In multiple court submissions over the last several years, CapAd had fought to be able to continue to conceal the true source of its "PACBuilder" software from its customers, who include numerous groups that heavily support Republicans. Despite having selectively disclosed the arrangement to some, CapAd claimed that "[it] would create confusion if its customers were to learn that NGP is the true developer of the software."

The court's ruling effectively gives PACBuilder users the information they need to ask questions that will allow them to fairly evaluate CapAd's software, data security policies, and technical services.

"CapAd customers will be surprised to learn where their most sensitive political data has been sent, and who has had access to it.  NGP customers are in for some ugly surprises of their own.  This whole mess begs an internal investigation by Economist management or their board as to the extent of the breach of protocol and the need for further disclosures and complete candor with customers."

About Aristotle

Aristotle is recognized as a global pioneer in political technology, providing indispensable tools to those who seek to use the Democratic process to influence decisions at the ballot box. Every occupant of the White House — Democrat and Republican — for more than 25 years has been an Aristotle customer, as are most U.S. Senators, most members of the U.S. House of Representatives, and Democratic and Republican state party organizations. For information about career opportunities or for client inquiries, go to www.aristotle.com.

(1) Any information copied, or otherwise obtained, from any FEC contributor report or statement, or any copy, reproduction, or publication thereof may should not be sold or used by any person for the purpose of soliciting contributions or for any commercial purpose, except that the name and address of any political committee may be used to solicit contributions from such committees. There is no increased fee for inclusion or per record usage of such data in 360, and Aristotle's FEC contributor data look-up feature also is available at no charge on Aristotle's website at www.aristotle.com.

SOURCE Aristotle