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PoliticalStrategy Warfare

Opposition Research

Know every argument that will be made against you — before it is made.

Rigorous, public-record research on opponents and on your own candidate, so the campaign is never surprised by its own vulnerabilities.

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Short answer

What is Opposition Research?

Rigorous, public-record research on opponents and on your own candidate, so the campaign is never surprised by its own vulnerabilities.

The Challenge

What usually goes wrong

Campaigns research their opponents and neglect themselves. The attack that damages a candidate is almost never unknown — it is simply unprepared for, and the forty-eight hours spent scrambling for a response is the damage.

Our Approach

How we run it

  1. 01

    Public record compilation

    Affidavits, asset declarations, court records, assembly and parliament attendance, voting behaviour, published statements and media archive — sourced and citable.

  2. 02

    Performance and promise audit

    Prior commitments are matched against delivery, producing a documented record of what was promised and what arrived.

  3. 03

    Self-research

    The same scrutiny is applied to your own candidate first. Every campaign we run begins by finding our client’s weak points before anyone else does.

  4. 04

    Attack anticipation matrix

    Each vulnerability is scored by likelihood and damage, with a pre-approved response drafted and cleared in advance.

  5. 05

    Rapid-response readiness

    Responses are pre-cleared so a reply goes out in hours, not days, in the correct language and from the correct voice.

Deliverables

  • Opponent dossiers from public record with citations
  • Self-vulnerability audit
  • Attack anticipation matrix with severity scoring
  • Pre-drafted response library
  • Fact-check reference pack for spokespersons

Tools & Data Sources

  • ECI candidate affidavit archive
  • Legislative attendance and question records
  • Court and public record databases
  • Media archive analysis

Engagement Timeline

What happens, and when

  1. Week 1

    Scope and target list

  2. Week 1–3

    Record compilation

  3. Week 2

    Self-audit

  4. Week 4

    Matrix and response library

    Handover and review

In Practice

Where this was deployed

By-Election 2020Anonymised

High-Stakes By-Election Victory

Compressed the full seven-phase plan into nineteen days without dropping the diagnostic.

+9.6%
Vote Share Increase
18,713
Margin
100%
Booth Coverage

High-Stakes By-Election Victory

No time for a standard diagnostic, extreme media scrutiny, and an opponent with a fully built organisation already in the field for weeks.

Read the full case study

FAQ

Questions we are asked

Never. We work exclusively from public records and published material. We do not conduct surveillance, obtain private data, or engage in any form of intrusion — this is stated explicitly in our Code of Ethics.

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