The Solution

Packages & Pricing

Research Made Easy

Every campaign needs opposition research, but here's the problem

Professional opposition research isn’t a practical option for most campaigns.

A single opposition research report for a Congressional or statewide campaign can cost as much as $15-$20,000 or even more. Those campaigns can afford that hefty price and so can candidates for mayor and maybe city council in major cities.

But what about the thousands of smaller campaigns for whom $20,000 is a major portion of the campaign budget or maybe even the entire campaign budget? Where do they turn for help?

General “research handbooks” are too generic to be of much use. So what can be done to provide these campaigns with effective basic research?

THE SOLUTION: Douglas Fulmer & Associates is now offering revolutionary "Opposition Research Made Easy" computer CDs aimed at candidates for state legislature, county council, small-medium municipal offices and any other campaigns who can’t afford to hire a professional researcher.

These aren’t generic "how to" discs. Instead, each CD is individually tailored for the particular campaign.

First: One of DF&A’s professionals will interview the candidate or campaign representative and provide them with a simple questionnaire. We’ll gather the basic information about the opponent we need to design a basic campaign research plan.

Second: We’ll take that basic research plan and find out what the campaign needs to do in its particular area to gather the necessary information.

Third: We’ll use this information to prepare a special, one-of-a-kind, interactive computer Compact Disc that will put the research resources the campaign needs right at their finger tips.

We’ll tell the campaign what documents to look for and where to find them. Where possible, we’ll provide computer links to specific courthouse and governmental information about the research target. When this information is not available online, we’ll provide addresses, phone numbers and other necessary information to allow the campaign to obtain these records in person.

We’ll also provide links to newspaper archives and to both paid and free online resources guaranteed to contain information about the target.

We’ll provide guidance to web searches specifically geared to the target’s background and experience.

If the target is a present or past officeholder, we’ll tell the campaign what documents they need to gather and we’ll provide specific links and/or directions for gathering these.

All this information will be presented in a series of easy-to-use worksheets – each one targeted to a specific area of research (civil court records, military records, business filings, etc.). Each worksheet will include a checklist so the campaign can easily follow the necessary research steps and make sure nothing is missed.

The worksheets are designed so that each one, along with the gathered research documents, can be included in a final research “book.”

DOES THIS TAKE THE PLACE OF PROFESSIONAL RESEARCH? Clearly the answer is NO. If the campaign can afford it they should hire a professional research consultant who can carry out more extensive research and provide deeper analysis of the findings on an ongoing basis.

These discs are not meant to take the place of a professional researcher. But what they will do is allow smaller-budget campaigns to conduct basic, accurate research and effectively utilize it.