Audioblog for 7/23/05
Don't try to spank your opponent, before you know whether your candidate has been naughty too.

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Music courtesy of http://www.freeplaymusic.com/

Text version:

In 1988, during my tenure with the state party, we had a Democrat who was running for office challenging one of our incumbents, and there supposedly was rumour they had been arrested, tried, and convicted for selling marijuana. A zealous young campaign recruit like myself would normally think, "Oooooo. Silver bullet issue here? Might look like it. The Opponent better get out the butter - because he's toast!"

I researched this issue, and proved every single allegation true. The rare instance where it was documented in a public forum. The rare instance when this stuff actually proved true. I had news clippings from two newspapers, with the name in print and everything. I had the sledgehammer, and I was getting ready to swing!

Before I prepared for the pounce, I noticed that this is the second go around for this pair of candidates. And the conviction was even more recent two years earlier, when they tangled before. So, for once I used my head and asked around - "Why did this never come up during the other election?"

The answer? After about four phone calls, I uncover a startling truth: "Well it was known before, but ______ (my candidate) was on TV when they were interviewing candidates about Presidential candidate drug use, and he (my guy) said it wasn't a big deal. In fact, he admitted that he himself had 'experimented' in college, himself. In fact when he was on TV, it sounded like it was more than just ditch weed."

Oh, crap. Talk about a case of innocense lost. My candidate was not as pure as the driven snow? How dare he! The funny thing was that it was my candidate himself who wanted us to get the information out. I had to explain to him why I wasn't going to touch that one with a ten foot pole.

One of the things you come to realize in working on campaigns is that your guy is as human as the guy on the other side. As such, they all make mistakes. All of them. And the dirt you dig up on the other guy might come back and nip you in the tail too.

If you're going to do opposition research, it's not such bad advice to do a little research on your guy (or yourself if you are the candidate) as well. Tell your opposition researcher to start digging into you own background. Know what you might be hit with before you're hit with it. Know what's out there to find. Because you need to know what issues might bring more problems than than the momentary advantage they are worth.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I must admit this is cool stuff
5:45 PM
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