What counts as a source in opposition research
A source in opposition research is a public record a reader can open again. The useful unit is the document, the roll call, or the dated statement, with the identifier printed on it. A search portal, a spreadsheet export, and a news roundup can help a researcher find that record. They do not replace it. When the sentence ships, the citation names the record that contains the fact.
Campaigns mix five families of records because each family answers a different question. Campaign finance filings show reported money. Legislative votes show how a member voted on a named bill. Personal financial disclosures show what a filer reported about income, assets, and liabilities. Court filings show what a court record says about a matched identity. Public statements show what the candidate said on a dated occasion. Donor data sits inside the finance filings. It is a grouping of disclosed transactions, and it stays attached to those filings.
The same list applies to every party. A Democratic filing and a Republican filing use the same citation rule: open the document, name it, and keep the sentence inside what that document says. Office and place change which shelf holds the record. They do not change the rule.
Campaign finance filings
Federal candidates, party committees, and many PACs report receipts and disbursements to the Federal Election Commission. The FEC's filing guidance says that after registration, authorized committees file regularly, and those reports are published in the campaign finance data section of the site. A researcher uses that catalog to find the committee, then reads the report. The longer pass on committees, receipts, disbursements, and amendments is FEC candidate research.
A state or local candidate may never appear in an FEC report. Their money, if it is disclosed, is in a state or local system. Name the agency and the report that was opened. Do not fill a missing federal report with a state total, and do not treat a state committee's report as if it were an FEC Form 3.
Cite the committee the sentence is about. A principal campaign committee, a joint fundraising committee, and an outside-spending report are different documents. Adding them into one total produces a figure none of the reports print. Itemized contributions can be grouped so a reader sees concentration in the disclosed money. That grouping supports a sentence about the filings. It stops before a sentence about a private promise the reports do not contain.
Voting records and legislative history
A voting record is the roll call a chamber recorded. The citation names the chamber, the bill, the date, and the vote. When the sentence is about what the bill did, pair the roll call with the bill text. A vote line without the bill is a yes or a no. A bill summary without the roll call is someone else's description of the measure.
Candidates who have never held the office being sought may have a voting record from a prior office, a local board, or no voting record at all. The file says which of those is true. An empty section is the result of the search. It is a result, and it stays empty until a roll call for that person and that bill is in hand.
Legislative history around a vote, including a hearing transcript or a committee report, is a separate document. Cite it on its own line when the sentence uses it. A later amendment to a bill does not rewrite the roll call that was taken on the earlier text. If both matter, cite both.
Personal financial disclosures
Some offices require a personal financial disclosure that lists income, assets, and liabilities in ranges set by the filing rules. Those forms are public records of the filer. They are a different document from a campaign finance report. Mixing the candidate's personal disclosure with the committee's receipts produces a sentence that sounds precise and cites the wrong form.
Cite the form, the year, and the line or range the sentence uses. Ranges stay ranges. A disclosure that reports an asset inside a band does not become a single dollar figure in the memo. If a later amendment changes a line, the citation names the amendment that was opened, and the earlier form remains the source of any sentence that used it.
A candidate for an office that does not require the form may have a disclosure from a prior office, or none. The file says which. Absence of a form is recorded as the search result for that office and year.
Court and legal records
Dockets, opinions, and judgments that match the candidate's identity can belong in the file. Record the court, the case number, the date, and the latest public status the researcher opened. A dismissal, a seal, or a later appellate ruling is part of that status when it appears in the record that was opened.
A docket that matches only a name is a lead. It stays a lead until the identity lines up with an address, a date of birth the record itself publishes, or another identifier in the filing. Same-name risk is ordinary in a large state. The file does not promote a caption into a claim because the surname matches.
Court records and campaign finance records answer different questions. A civil judgment is not a disbursement, and a committee report is not a case caption. Keep the sentences on the documents that contain them.
Public statements and position changes
Public statements are the candidate's own words, or a labeled account of those words. A quotation stores the words, the date, and the place. An official campaign site, a government press release, and a hearing transcript can each hold that quotation. A newspaper summary stays labeled as someone else's description.
A position change is a comparison of two dated records. The file cites both. A statement and a later vote can sit next to each other as a prompt to open both documents. The pair is a research question until both records are in hand. If only one is in hand, the sentence stays a question.
Contradiction flags in a research file point between two sourced records. Both items stay attached. A one-sided flag stays an open question, written so a reader can see that the second document is still missing.
How OppIntell ties each claim to a source
On a published OppIntell briefing, each claim carries a source URL, a source type, and a citation validation status. The status records whether the cited document still exists at that URL and still contains the cited language. Named source types include an FEC filing, a Secretary of State portal, a court record, an official campaign site, and a government press release. A claim that fails validation stays out of the public post until the source is opened again or replaced.
That is the research methodology. OppIntell applies it to the same fields on every profile: the record, the type, and the check that the document still says what the line says. Posture language such as may, could, would examine, and appears consistent with marks an open thread. The thread stays marked until the document supports a firmer sentence.
Self opposition research uses this same source list on the candidate the campaign works for. The records do not change when the audience is the campaign's own communications team.
Source checklist
Use the checklist when a line is about to leave the notes. The middle column is the question that source can answer. The last column is what the citation records so a reader can open the same document.
| Source type | Question it answers | What the citation records |
|---|---|---|
| Campaign finance filing | Who gave, and what the committee spent, in a named period | Committee, form, period, the date the report was opened, and the line the sentence uses |
| Legislative vote | How the member voted on a named bill | Chamber, bill, date, and the recorded vote |
| Personal financial disclosure | What the filer reported as income, assets, or liabilities | Form, year, and the range or line cited |
| Court filing | What a court record says about a matched identity | Court, case number, date, and the latest status opened |
| Public statement | What the candidate said in public on a dated occasion | Speaker, date, place, and the words quoted |
Common sourcing mistakes
The usual mistakes are mismatches between the sentence and the document. Citing a database home page instead of the report. Adding a joint fundraising committee into a principal committee total. Reading a cycle-to-date figure as if it were the period total. Treating a donor's employer, as printed on a filing, as an endorsement the employer never made. Quoting a news paraphrase as if it were the candidate's sentence. Filling an empty vote section from a different office. Shipping a same-name court caption before the identity matches.
Each of those mistakes is fixed the same way. Reopen the record, name the identifier, and keep the sentence inside that record. If the record is missing, the section stays empty and the sentence stays in the notes.
The working list of races is candidate research by race, and the state shelves are candidate research by state. Start from the office and the place, then open the record that office uses. The field manual for how campaigns use the file is opposition research.
FAQs
Are FEC filings public records a campaign can cite?
Yes. After a committee registers, its reports are published in the FEC campaign finance data catalog at https://www.fec.gov/data/. A citation names the committee, the report, and the date the researcher opened it. The longer walk-through is FEC candidate research.
Where does a voting record come from?
A voting record comes from the chamber that took the roll call. Cite the bill, the date, and the recorded vote, and pair that line with the bill text when the sentence is about what the bill did. A candidate who never held an office that takes roll-call votes has an empty vote section.
Can a court record go into an opposition research file?
A court record belongs when the identity matches the person in the file. Record the court, the case number, the date, and the latest public status that was opened. A caption that shares only a surname stays a question until another identifier in the record lines up.
What should a citation record besides the database name?
Record the document, the date, the identifier printed on it, and the URL or docket where a reader can open that same document. The database is the shelf. The citation is the specific record the sentence uses.