The campaign season is heating up and lurking quietly behind the scenes are teams of opposition researchers whose daily jobs revolve around digging up dirt on their client’s opponents.
The no frills business of “oppo” research has a heavy hand in the campaign business, and those doing the dirty work are often responsible for an election’s most memorable moments. Think back to the 2012 presidential campaign when an opposition researcher unearthed the now-viral video of Republican candidate Mitt Romney delivering his infamous 47 percent comment.
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“You want to find information that will cause media attention—something that will force the opponent off message. The more they’re off message, the less likely they are able to be successful in their campaign,” Larry Zilliox, founder and chief executive officer of Investigative Research Specialists LLC, said.
Zilliox should know. He wrote the book on it.
Seriously, Zilliox is the author of the "Opposition Researcher Handbook."
“It’s the only opposition research handbook out there!” he said.
Zilliox came to Washington, D.C. in the early 1990s to do private investigative work but found that the market was saturated with private investigators—“lots of retired agents and federal guys doing a lot of work for little money.”
He decided he had to specialize in something, so he turned to campaigns. Since then, he’s dug up dirt on everyone from local candidates running for city auditor to gubernatorial and congressional candidates across the country.
“Nothing surprises me anymore,” he said.
Now he’s basically the oppo research guru. He has his own research firm, he’s penned four editions of the "Opposition Research Handbook" and he instructs an opposition research boot camp, where he grooms classes of oppo- researcher-wannabees several times a year.
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The first thing he tells his class—which is usually made up of private investigators, campaign staffers and “political types” clamoring to get their hands on the next big juicy nugget that could bring down a campaign, is to “never do something you wouldn’t be comfortable disclosing to a reporter on the evening news.”
Barring illegal activity, Zilliox said very few things are off limits, but of course, there are standards.
“If it’s illegal just don’t do it. You’re not there to cause a scene. You just want the opponent to come off message,” he said. “You’re not a spy. You’re a researcher.”
When he’s on assignment, Zilliox said one of the first things he does is research his own client to anticipate what the opposing campaigns might uncover.