Opposition Research

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

I learned something really fascinating about this the other day. A guy who used to do opposition research or political campaigns was interviewed on AAR. He explained what they do, and this is something to think about whenever you read an article about a candidate that has an obvious negative slant.

When a campaign hires oppo researchers they pay them very well, but their fees are usually hidden under categories like legal or media relations so nobody knows exactly how much they get paid. The oppo guy's assistants do all the legwork: they research ALL public records in whatever place the opposing candidate ever lived or worked; they look for any involvement in lawsuits, criminal records (including misdemeanors like driving violations), real estate transactions, liens, business deals, divorces, stuff involving relatives, anything you could possibly imagine.

Then they pass this stuff on to pollsters so they can figure out whether and to what extent people might react negatively to the information if they knew about it.

Finally the information, especially the juiciest stuff that's likely to elicit negative responses, is passed on to the campaign. But the campaign usually doesn't use it directly because they don't want their fingerprints on it. Instead, they carefully leak it with the appropriate spin to sympathetic journalists or bloggers.

That's how most of this shit gets out. So when you read some crap about your candidate or your candidate's opponent, just consider the source and take it with a grain or two of salt.