The Opposition Research Training Blog

Next Opposition Research Boot Camp June 21st

The next Opposition Research “Boot Camp” has been scheduled for June 21, 2013 at  the Hyatt Place in Herndon, VA. Register and secure your seat at ResearchOps.com.

This one-of-a-kind "Boot Camp" training course is perfect for campaign staff, media, private investigators, and issue oriented non-profit organizations seeking to learn the latest political opposition research techniques. Training is in three-hour morning and afternoon blocks for up to 30 participants. The course instructor is a private investigator with over 25 year's experience and the author of The Opposition Research Handbook: A Guide to Political Investigations, 4th Ed. Download our Boot Camp brochure to learn more.

Next Opposition Research Boot Camp May 10th

Seats are still available for the May 10, 2013 Opposition Research “Boot Camp” at  the Hyatt Place in Herndon, VA. Register and secure your seat at ResearchOps.com.

This one-of-a-kind "Boot Camp" training course is perfect for campaign staff, media, private investigators, and citizen researchers seeking to learn the latest political opposition research techniques. Training is in three-hour morning and afternoon blocks for up to 30 participants. The course instructor is a private investigator with over 25 year's experience and the author of The Opposition Research Handbook: A Guide to Political Investigations. Download our Boot Camp brochure to learn more.

McConnell Campaign Believes Meeting Was Illegally Recorded

Shortly after Mother Jones Magazine published a transcript of a McConnell Campaign strategy meeting the organization announced they have asked the FBI to investigate how Mother Jones obtained the recording. We have previously written about the easy availability of surreptitious listening devices here.

On the tapes McConnell and aides are heard discussed opposition research they have compiled on possible challengers most prominently actress Ashley Judd. The campaign is not happy about the release of the recording. I am sure they are concerned voters will find their talk about using Judd’s mental health and religious views as political fodder disturbing. Here is the meeting leader discussing the mental health issue:

Ah, and again. She's clearly, this sounds extreme, but she is emotionally unbalanced. I mean it's been documented. Jesse can go in chapter and verse from her autobiography about, you know, she's suffered some suicidal tendencies. She was hospitalized for 42 days when she had a mental breakdown in the '90s.

NBC News quotes McConnell Campaign Manager Jesse Benton as saying "We’ve always said the Left would stop at nothing to attack Sen. McConnell, but Watergate-style tactics to bug campaign headquarters are above and beyond." While it is possible someone had planted a listening device, it is more likely a staff member or intern attending the meeting made the recording. Kentucky is a one party state so anyone invited to the meeting who made the recording would not have violated state or federal wiretapping laws. Releasing a recording of a private meeting to the media certainly exposes one to civil invasion of privacy lawsuits. It is hard to believe Mother Jones attorneys would allow the use of a recording they felt was illegally obtained.

If some meeting participants attended through a conference call it is possible an uninvited caller obtained the conference call codes and made the recording. Federal authorities are not shy about going after this sort of political spying. Some years ago Ed Matricardi, the Virginia Republican Party Executive Director pled guilty in federal court to one eavesdropping count after using conference call codes to listen in and record two calls in which Democrats discussed how to fight GOP-controlled redistricting in 2002.

NPR Visits Our Opposition Research Boot Camp

NPR Congressional Reporter on the Washington Desk Tamara Keith stopped by our March Opposition Research Boot Camp last week to interview Larry Zilliox owner of Investigative Research Specialists, LLC. She filed this story about what she learned.

State of Rhode Island Transparency Portal

Rhode Island's governor unveiled a new online tool Thursday designed to make it easier for residents to see contracts, revenue figures, lobby registrations, state records, and make Access to Public Records requests. The State of Rhode Island Transparency Portal allows users to submit an APRA request to agencies in the Rhode Island Executive Branch directly through the web page.

Virginia HB 2125 Virginia Freedom of Information Act; requests for records.

Virginia Freedom of Information Act; requests for records. Provides that FOIA requests may be made by any citizen of the United States and not just citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia. The bill also allows a public body to require prepayment before providing requested records when the cost for production of the records is likely to exceed $100.

Currently in Committee on General Laws.

Pennsylvania Employee Salaries Online

Pennsylvania just added its name to the growing list of states placing an array of public information online. The new web page PennWATCH includes information on revenue, spending, and state employee salaries. You can search by payee name, city, or zip code to see who is getting state contracts. You can do a general search by state to find all vendors from a particular state paid by Pennsylvania. For instance Pennsylvania paid the Virginia company Magellan Medicaid Administration $91,303,513 to administer Medicaid payments in 2011 and 2012. There are also hotlinks to lobbyist registrations and campaign finance reports right on the home page.

Run – Hide – Fight

While a little off topic in light of yesterday’s tragic school shooting in Newtown, CT, and what seems like an escalation of deadly public shooting situations, I thought I would share some thoughts on what you can do if you are caught in an active shooter situation. The prevailing philosophy of how a person should react in an active shooter situation is Run – Hide – Fight.

Run

Whether you’re at the office, school, hospital, movies or a shopping mall any time you are alerted to a dangerous situation – leave. Don’t wait to hear shots or see what is happening. What may not seem like a deadly situation can quickly escalate into one. If it is not your job to deal with crazy or unruly people move away from them when possible. While everyone is going to see what all the commotion is about, go the opposite direction so you are close to the exit or even out of the building.

In an active shooter situation your focus must be on getting out of the building quickly. You must always keep moving and not allow anything to distract you. Keep your cell phone in your pocket and wait to call 911 until you are out of the building and safe. In fearful and highly stressful situations your adrenaline will be pumping. Adrenaline affects your fine motor skills and can make it hard to use your cell phone. Some people’s hands shake uncontrollably and others have trouble speaking. You also do not want to be distracted and allow the shooter to walk up on you.

Hide

If your ability to escape has been cut off and leaving would put you in the direct line of fire of the shooter, your next option is to hide. Lock the door to the room and push any heavy furniture in front of the door to barricade it. Stay directly behind the furniture barricading the door and do everything you can to keep the shooter from entering the room. Once the shooter knows the door has been barricaded they also know someone is in the room.

If you do not have time or heavy furniture with which to barricade the door, pull a couch or chair away from the wall just enough for you to crouch behind it. A shooter looking into the room across a horizontal plane from the hall cannot tell you have pulled the furniture away from the wall to create a hiding place. If the shooter enters the room the two most likely places they will look is in the closet and under the desk. Try not to hide in either of these places.

Do not lay down behind furniture to hide. You may inadvertently expose your feet or head thinking the furniture is larger than it is. It is harder to flight or flee from a prone position. Resist the temptation to call 911 and let them know where you are. The 911 call center will probably be overloaded with calls and police are trained to methodically search the building and neutralize the active shooter or shooters. They will not come directly to where you are hiding to save you. It is not part of their active shooter response protocol. You also do not want the shooter to hear you on the phone and enter the room looking for you. The shooter will know you are on the phone to the police giving them vital information that influences their response. This makes you an immediate target for the shooter.

Fight

An unarmed person probably will not survive an encounter with an armed gunman. A person roaming a building shooting innocent people at random will kill you if they have the opportunity. You’re only chance is to fight.

Listen for the shooter. If you are hiding you will know when the shooter is approaching. The shooter will be the one not running. Playing dead rarely works because it is hard to pull off. Most people close their eyes so hard when they try to play dead it is obvious they are not. Others pray or mumble without realizing it. You must fight to save yourself. Find the heaviest item around you to use as a weapon. While fire extinguishers are usually not kept in offices, when searching for a place to hide grab one from the hall if you can. Because of the pressure within a fire extinguisher they are made of steel and one of the heaviest objects found in an office. You can use it to spray and blind a shooter or strike them with it.

A chair with metal legs can pin the shooter against a wall or door frame making it hard for them to point a weapon at you, especially a rifle or shotgun. If you are hiding with others the largest and strongest person in the room should attempt to pin the shooter while others beat the shooter with anything at hand. Do not strike the shooter and then attempt to run. You may have only dazed the shooter and they will shoot you as you flee. Keep striking the shooter until you can get their weapon away from them. Don’t stop because you think the shooter is unconscious or dead. Only stop when you have the weapon away from them and can leave.

Do not run through the building with the shooter’s weapon. You do not want to be mistaken for the shooter and shot by responding police officers. If the building has windows that open throw the gun out the window. The shooter cannot get to the weapon and you will look like a victim again. Leave the building with your hands high in the air.

The City of Huston has produced an excellent video titled Run, Hide, Fight: Surviving an Active Shooter Event which I encourage everyone to watch.

Opposition Research Training Set for March

Investigative Research Specialists, LLC has announced our one day political opposition research “Boot Camp” training seminar has been scheduled for March 22, 2013 at the Hyatt Place Hotel in Herndon, Virginia.

This one-of-a-kind "Boot Camp" training course is perfect for campaign staff, media, private investigators, and citizen researchers seeking to learn the latest political opposition research techniques. Training is in three-hour morning and afternoon blocks for up to 30 participants. The course instructor is a private investigator with over 25 year's experience and the author of The Opposition Research Handbook: A Guide to Political Investigations. Download our Boot Camp brochure to learn more.

Properly trained campaign staff increases productivity while limiting liability and exposure to negative media attention. Experienced opposition researchers become valuable party or organizational assets. They are able to contribute for many years. We have kept costs down enabling us to offer the full day training for only $249.

To register click here.

North Carolina - Social Media Archive

The state of North Carolina has created a Social Media Archive to search social media records from selected North Carolina state agencies. The records are archived on a continuous, near-real-time basis. The advanced search feature allows users to limit search by a date range of social media such as Facebook or LinkedIn. Results can be sorted by relevance or date and can be narrowed by social media type and account.