Helen Seliverstov over at calraces.com today talks about a book by Jim Collins in which he identifies the qualities of leadership that brings success.
Helen’s commentary includes some important words. Basically to know your strengths and weaknesses and to always believe in your ability to win. The power of positive thinking aside, as a research consultant I preach the former–know how your negatives play with the voters just as much as how your opponents negative impact him or her.
I cannot stress this point enough. To often candidates and sometimes consultants are timid about asking poll questions that might "reveal" a black mark on the candidate’s past. They fear that among the several hundred voters surveyed one or several will hear the question about a tax lien or lawsuit and pass it along to the opposition.
The fact is, if your opponent has any kind of campaign, they will have already done there own opposition research and know all the dirt already.
Bottom line: if there is negative information about you or your candidate that could be obtained (assume everything is, i.e. cel phone call log records are available for $99) test it in a poll–know how the voters will respond to it.