The party organizations assign people to read local newspapers and dig up stories that might embarrass a potential opponent in the next election cycle. Robert Gibbs of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee said that on a typical day he goes through the newspapers in a dozen states, looking for negative material about Republicans to highlight in news releases. Some of it can be, well, downright nasty. D-La., next year. Landrieu was elected amid cases of voter fraud, and had to work hard to get votes in the African-American community usually very reliably Democrat.
Some attacks can boomerang.
Republicans were persistent in criticizing Clinton's affair with a White House intern and succeeded in making Clinton only the second president ever to be impeached. But those attacks also led to perceptions by some voters that Republicans went too far, and party leaders concede it probably led to some Republican House losses in 1998. Moreover, the focus on Clinton's sex life eventually led to revelations of marital infidelity by some leading Republican members of Congress. Party officials say they aren't about to let up, with recently elected Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe vowing to be a persistent critic of the new president.