You are always being watched. That’s the rather creepy message staffers and party committees must stress to their candidates in an era when one ill-advised comment, even made among friends, can almost single-handedly tank a campaign. Tracking, the practice of sending a person with a video camera to record the every move of a rival candidate, has been around for several election cycles now. But in recent years it has become ever more regimented, with organizations such as America Rising, on the Republican side, and American Bridge, on the Democratic side, springing up to track, research, and attack candidates on a mass scale, supplementing work already done by each party’s various campaign committees. The practice’s increasing sophistication has, in turn, forced campaigns to become more disciplined, and created a level of transparency and access not previously seen in House and Senate races.

Read the article “Tracking Candidates: It’s Actually for Their Own Good” on nationalreview.com.