For a look at the complicated - and often hidden - world of campaigning.
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More than a dozen opposition research books are available on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s website, detailing planned lines of attack on Republican candidates in some of the most competitive races. But the committee wasn’t hacked, it wasn’t an accident, and it’s not new. Posting the documents was entirely intentional and just the beginning of a biennial, bipartisan tradition.
The books are typically a few hundred pages, but the ones available as of Wednesday varied in length from the 10 pages about Republican consultant Jim Bognet, who is running in Pennsylvania’s 8th District, to the 942-page, Robert Caro-esque volume on former GOP Rep. David Valadao, who is running to reclaim California’s 21st District after losing reelection in 2018.
Just the term “opposition research” conjures up images of dumpster-diving in the shadows for sensitive discarded documents that can then be used for surprise attacks in television ads. Posting the opposition research online, however, is just one example of how both parties publicly share information to avoid illegal coordination with outside groups and running afoul of campaign finance laws. And it’s been happening for nearly a decade. (see “IE strategy borders on art form,” in CQ Roll Call eight years ago.)
Since the official campaign committees can’t coordinate with their independent expenditure arms or with outside groups, strategists on both sides of the aisle use public signals to keep the party on the same page and avoid duplication of resources, such as paying twice for the same background information.
Publicly available opposition research is also evidence that there are few surprises in modern campaigns, where races are more likely to be decided by execution and quality of ads, money to put them in front of voters, the partisanship of a district, and the national political environment.
