Campaign Tips – Opposition Research

Saturday, September 12th, 2009

One of the most misunderstood areas of campaigning is what is known as “opposition research”. Many people think that this means digging for dirt on your opponent and throwing it at him or her (or, if you are supposedly sophisticated, having others throw it on your behalf). That is not, however, what opposition research entails at all.

It is not negative campaigning. It has been described as “the interpretation of publicly verifiable documents, not a collection of unverifiable innuendoes and rumours”. It is a matter of finding out as much about your opponent as your opponent probably already knows about you.

The value of opposition research was brilliantly displayed by the Labour Party over the final weekend of campaigning prior to the Ealing Southall by-election when the memorable picture of the Conservative candidate, Tony Lit, standing alongside Tony Blair was released to the media. At a stroke Lit’s campaign died.

The goal of all opposition research is to demonstrate that your candidate is competent, capable and that his/her values match those of the voters. Equally you wish to demonstrate that your opponent is incompetent, unethical or does not share or represent the values of the voters.

As one leading conservative opposition researcher, Terry Cooper, once said: “If you’re challenging an incumbent, or running for an open seat in competition with someone better known or more experienced than you, the odds are that you’re going to lose – unless you have skillfully used opposition research”.

If engaging in opposition research consider the following:

1. Start Early – your campaign should be based on the fruits of your research; it should not be an afterthought.
2. Don’t Wait for the Knockout Punch – it is rarely delivered and you waste too much time waiting.
3. Start on Yourself – get an opposition research report produced about yourself to see what skeletons may be revealed.
4. Be Honest – if you are a candidate, be honest with your campaign manager. If you have a poor attendance record, have voted badly on a key issue or have financial problems, your campaign manager must know.
5. Verify Everything – just because it’s on the internet doesn’t mean that it’s true!
6. Be Discreet, Ethical & Legal – trawling through rubbish, hacking into computers and accessing information through inappropriate means will not help your cause.
7. Do Not Overstate Research – the researcher must not exaggerate or embellish his findings in the hope of impressing a campaign manager. If the research reveals little of real use, so be it.
8. Research With Pride – you are conducting research on your opponent because he or she is running for public office. If you are accused of muckraking this will be because your opponent is scared of running on his or her record.
9. Document Everything – if you are challenged you need to prove your allegation otherwise you will lose all credibility.
10. Keep Perspective – whatever is discovered, is it really sufficiently relevant to form part of the overall campaign strategy?