There’s an old saying: what you don’t know can’t hurt you. When it comes to the blood sport of politics, nothing could be further from the truth.
Democrats have found that lesson out the hard way twice now in the past five months. First there was the Democrat Primary Election for Lieutenant Governor in Illinois where political neophyte Scott Lee Cohen, a pawnbroker, won the primary. Only after the nomination was secure did accusations of anabolic steroid abuse and domestic violence with a convicted prostitute come to light. Runner-up Art Turner wasn’t doing his homework – neither was the State Party for that matter – and now Cohen’s campaign is defunct. In his wake is an embarrassment for the Democrat Party.
The second lesson came just this week when Democrat’s nominated Alvin Greene in South Carolina’s primary election to take on Republican Senator Jim DeMint. As you probably already know, after Greene secured the nomination folks are finding out about how Greene was “kicked out of the Army last year” and is facing felony charges from an arrest last November that alleges Greene was “disseminating, procuring or promoting obscenity.” Greene faces up to five years in the slammer.
While it’s funny to watch Democrats nominate these yo-yos, the truth is these embarrassing episodes are entirely self-inflicted. For example, doing a very basic Nexis search of Alvin Greene turns up his arrest from last November. Didn’t it ever occur to Greene’s opponent, or even the State Party, to vet Greene’s candidacy? Apparently not and now they will inevitably have to find a replacement and find a way to save face.
There’s another truth here though, and it is that the same thing could happen to Republicans.
The bottom line here is that whether it’s a campaign, state part or third party organization, research needs to be more than an afterthought. You need to know everything there is to know about your own vulnerabilities and your opponent’s weaknesses. While saving precious resources for an ad campaign is a prudent decision, scrimping on the line-item budget for research is foolish. The cost of research is a bargain when you compare that against the costs of what you don’t know. Just ask Democrats in Illinois and South Carolina.
In the interest of full disclosure, and as many of you already know, my full-time job is research, so I am admittedly a bit bias here on the need for a research capability.
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