Craft claims that there are four types of information involved in opposition research: political, campaign finance, career, and personal (Shea and Burton loc. 781). Hillary Clinton has not had much of a career prior to politics, so there is not a great deal of attacks targeting that section of information, but there are a wealth of attacks targeting the other three. The attacks by opponents during this election season on Hillary Clinton’s political decisions, campaign finance, and personal life prove that her opposition has done opposition research and found things that they believe can bring her down in the eyes of the voters.
Hillary Clinton is a long-time politician, so there is a lot of information for her opponents to sift through to try and find something to point to as negative. The opposing party, when researching their opposition, will, as illustrated in another campaign story in Mode, look for a weak point to hammer in order to win the election (Burton and Shea 80). The opposition did not have to do much research to find the hot topic of Hillary Clinton’s political scandal. While Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton used a private email server for official communication. Her opposition has since jumped on that as an attack point, hoping to make her seem untrustworthy based on this aspect of her political past. According to an article on CNN, Bernie Sanders does not think that voters should decide that “Clinton did nothing wrong” (Diamond 1). He is quoted in the article as saying that it is a serious issue that he simply does not want to politicize (Diamond 1). While this is not an outright attack, it is a way that Sanders can remind the voters about Clinton’s scandal while at the same time seeming to remain above it.
Hillary Clinton has also suffered attacks based on her campaign finance. According another article on CNN, Bernie Sanders has “[criticized] Clinton’s largeness” (Schleifer 1). Sanders is playing off an idea presented in Craft, which is that “well-funded campaigns and wealthy candidates can be accused of ‘buying’ elections” (Shea and Burton loc. 845). He is trying to make Hillary Clinton seem as though she is in the pocket of the wealthy. He is trying to make her seem out of touch, similar to the strategy used in the campaign described in Mode, in which a Democratic incumbent was ousted in a growing conservative district.
Hillary Clinton’s personal life has long been the source of many opponent’s attacks. Her husband, Bill Clinton, has a famous white house scandal to his name, and it haunts Hillary Clinton even to this day. Craft makes the claim that guilt by association is “fair game in politics” (Shea and Burton loc. 872), and Clinton has more than just her husband associated with her according to her opponent’s opposition research. Recently, Donald Trump, a potential challenge to Clinton for the presidency, has released a video attacking Clinton. According to a Time Magazine Article, Donald Trump released an Instagram video that features Hillary Clinton speaking about women’s rights “as images of Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky flash across the screen, followed by a photographs of Hillary Clinton standing near Anthony Weiner and Bill Cosby” (Berenson 1). Trump has done his research, and links Clinton to public figures that have had famous and relatively recent sex scandals. He is doing this to give voters an impression of Clinton’s character, and he may be targeting a specific group of Democrat voters. Challenge makes the case that, with respect to a scandal, the “largest negative shift [in voters] for Democrats occurred among the moderately involved” (Craig and Hill 282). Trump might be using this information to cause moderately involved voters to turn against Clinton. In order to win the election, Clinton might need these votes, and Trump may be planting seeds out doubt in them early on to get them to defect.
Campaigns seem to require a negative element to win. It positions voters against their opposition. In order to go negative effectively, however, research must be done. Hillary Clinton has been the subject of attacks from both parties. The attacks by opponents during this election season on Hillary Clinton’s political decisions, campaign finance, and personal life prove that her opposition has done opposition research and found things that they believe can bring her down in the eyes of the voters.
Works Cited
Berenson, Tessa. “Donald Trump Ties Hillary Clinton to Bill Cosby, Anthony Weiner in Instagram Post.” Time Magazine. 7 Jan. 2016. Web. 3 Mar. 2016.
Burton and Shea. Campaign Mode: Strategic Vision in Congressional Elections. Rowman & Littlefield, 2003.
Craig and Hill. The Electoral Challenge: Theory Meets Practice, 2nd edition. CQ Press, 2011.
Diamond, Jeremy. “Sanders: Clinton Emails ‘very Serious Issue'” CNN Politics. 31 Jan. 2016. Web. 3 Mar. 2016.
Schleifer, Theodore Schleifer, Dan Berman, and Dan Merica. “Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Marco Rubio Are Money Race Winners.” CNN Politics. 1 Feb. 2016. Web. 3 Mar. 2016.
Shea and Burton. Campaign Craft: The Strategies, Tactics, and Art of Political Campaign Management, 4th edition. Praeger, 2010.
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