California

So here’s a thought:

Crowd funded opposition research. I know candidates and campaigns do it all the time, and private donors do as well. But downticket candidates in deeply partisan areas will not have that kind of funding and the parties and their donors will prefer to spend their money on targeted races.

I’m thinking of a fund that could be used to fund oppo on people like this - either people who will simply be reelected because that’s the dynamic for the political machine that runs their district/state so they don’t face either a primary or a real opponent, or persons who have appointed positions.

Oppo research runs the gamut from extensive internet deep dives to interviews with previous associates to sending a PI to verify what has been found. From my limited investigation it looks surprisingly affordable - thousands of dollars more often than tens of thousands.

Any information found could then be given to the press or to the opposing party/candidate.

This might work better than simple donations because they’re extremely focused and tightly targeted. It’s also non-partisan to the extent that, while we might not be able to get a liberal Democrat in place for a position we can still work to hold people accountable for their actions by working to ensure their loss in a primary or removal/resignation.

I know it’s tempting to say that in the age of Trump nothing matters, and it’s true that republicans have lowered the bar of acceptable behaviors, but there are still things that are beyond the pale and or that could be used to push out someone who doesn’t have a lot of allies to begin with.