Leicester South MP Jon Ashworth said it was clear young homeowners were not voting Labour
Ask any political activist or Westminster watcher and they will admit it is the excitement of an election campaign that kick starts an adrenaline rush.
There's an element of that in the current race for the Labour Party leadership. However, the party's catastrophic general election defeat looms over this leadership contest.
There was a sense of this when all the main candidates spoke at the GMB annual conference in Dublin.
Researching why so many previous Labour voters deserted the party isn't going to spark an adrenaline rush.
It's going to take some serious, unexciting inquiries and the outcome might not suit the taste of many of the Labour faithful.
Leadership contender Liz Kendall is being supported by Ashfield MP Gloria De Piero and Chesterfield MP Toby Perkins
"Our opponents were able to give the impression we were not supporting business," Chris Leslie, the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, told me.
"We have to address the fears and anxieties people have about the Labour Party, so that they know we are not just opposing things but can be trusted in government."
Over the summer, the Nottingham East MP is embarking on a new Labour charm offensive to win over the business community, especially the small business owner.
"I think we have very strong values when it comes to fair play and doing the right thing but we must also show we care about wealth creation and creating prosperity. It's not just about the distribution of it," he said.
Andy Burnham is backed by Nottingham South MP Lilian Greenwood
Members of Labour's shadow cabinet and senior party leaders will spend most of August and September on an A to Z tour of the UK.
It is about listening to as many people as possible to find out why Labour got the thumbs down in the swing seats that really mattered.
"I want to understand why they switched against us," said Jon Ashworth, a member of Labour's National Executive and a close ally of Ed Miliband.
"When you crunch the numbers, it's pretty obvious we did well in city areas and in the more diverse areas like Leicester South," he said.
Bolsover MP Dennis Skinner is supporting Jeremy Corbyn
"But when you look across the East Midlands and elsewhere, it's pretty clear young home owners, living in their first home on a typical new estate, were not voting Labour. In fact they were voting Conservative."
The Leicester South MP is targeting many of the once-marginal East Midlands seats like Sherwood, Amber Valley and Erewash. They are now pretty safe Conservative seats with comfortable Tory majorities.
"They didn't believe we were credible on the economy. They probably liked some of our individual policies on child care, or getting young people back to work but they felt they didn't all fit together," Mr Ashworth said.
The Nottingham-based marketing data firm Experian has been a rich source for party strategists to understand the mood of the electorate. Its Mosaic researchers segment the voters into different groups, each with their different concerns and interests.
Yvette Cooper is backed by Leicester South MP Jon Ashworth and Gedling MP Vernon Coaker
For Jon Ashworth, it's the "New Home Makers", young, first-time home buyers living on the edge of town, who turned their backs on Labour.
"I suspect a lot of these people who voted Conservative aren't particularly enthusiastic about David Cameron or George Osborne but they just felt on this occasion the Labour Party wasn't credible," he said.
The Midland cities, as I mentioned in an earlier blog, delivered for Labour. But go to the market towns and the suburbs, it was rich pickings for the Conservatives.
While Labour listens to its lost voters, which leadership contender is most likely to appeal to the "New Home Makers"? The answer is to be found in those once-marginal East Midland swing seats.
