Subject: next up - top hits
From: "Brinster, Jeremy" <[email-masked]>
To: Veepstakes <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2016 12:00:07 -0700

Okay so at 4 pm we're going to meet to talk about what we're working on next, which is top hits. Take a few minutes to read through this and I'll talk about it more / answer any questions. Also look through the outline and examples I attacked

BIG PICTURE

When the VP nominee is picked, we want to have research on the candidate that shows the following:

*         How they are the same as the presidential nominee

*         How they differ from the presidential nominee

*         Any scandals the VP nominee has

*         Our top hits on the VP nominee across all of the major issues

The top hits are incredibly important because they tend to fill out a lot of the other pieces. When we know the worst things the VP nominee has said / done / believed that are bad for women, Latinos, youth, etc, we can bolster our case that they're just a carbon copy of the presidential nominee, or make the presidential nominee answer for how the VP differs on a certain topic.

TOP HITS

Our top hits are going to focus on anything the VP candidates have said or done that can be argued are:

*         Bad for women

*         Bad for LGBT

*         Bad for Latinos

*         Bad for African Americans

*         Bad for youth

*         Bad for the middle class

*         Bad for seniors

That means finding votes, comments, and commentary about those candidates on issues ranging from paid leave to employment nondiscrimination to voting rights, climate change, Obamacare, tax plans, etc. After that, we'll add other categories as well, like bad for foreign policy or bad for veterans. This is a big undertaking, and we want to finish it as fast as possible, but also as completely as possible.

WHERE TO START

For most of the POTUS candidates this cycle, we've had a big collection of bullets to work from that we could later sort into categories like "bad for women" and "bad for seniors," but for most of the VP candidates, we don't have that.

We should start by filling out "bad for women." I'm attaching an outline, but basically in addition to research you've done on their abortion positions, we want to include issues like contraception, equal pay, paid leave, and women in combat. Again these are top hits-not an exhaustive list of everything the candidate has said on a topic, but what we think will be the best hits.

To find the worst things they've said or done, just start with google. Places like On the Issues can also help point you to major votes they've taken. Many times they've put out statements or talked to the press surrounding major votes, anniversaries (like Roe v. Wade decision), SCOTUS decisions like Hobby Lobby, etc. Start there and then go a sweep on Nexis to see if there are any important gaps to fill.

Let's see if we can finish the section on women by the end of the day tomorrow.