Being proactive on the countless issues that one will face on the campaign trail is a key component of any successful overall strategy. Time is a precious commodity on any campaign and taking advantage of opportunities to do your homework now to properly confront issues surely awaiting your campaign is a necessity if you want to win in November.

One of the ways in which taking a proactive approach will certainly pay off revolves around candidate and issue research.  Below is a list of six questions that you, as the candidate, or as a staffer should ask of your campaign if you haven’t already:

1.)  If a current office-holder, does the campaign have a well-documented list of votes that the candidate has taken?

2.)  Of those votes, which ones could our opponent potentially target?

3.)  Does our overall campaign message conflict with the candidate’s voting record or previous experiences (both professionally or personally)?

4.)  Do we have a proper response for those areas?

5.)  Has our opponent taken controversial stands on issues and if so which ones?

6.)  Should they exist, does bringing attention to these issues gel well with the campaign’s overall message or serve as a detractor?

As one can see, most of these questions revolve around the candidate.  While opposition research certainly is an important element of any campaign, campaigns often face obstacles because they haven’t done enough research on their own candidate.

Just think about all of the news stories surrounding a candidate’s background that get campaigns off-message, forcing them to talk about items that play into their opponent’s hands.  Focusing your time and energy on researching yourself or your candidate will go a long way toward alleviating this problem, one that impacts every campaign no matter what office they are seeking.