How to Rig an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Ian Spiegelman (Contributor)
Key Phrases: phone jamming, wedge politics, political director, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Republican campaign advisor Raymond achieved some notoriety when he plead guilty in federal court to jamming Connecticut phone lines in a 2002 Democratic get-out-the-vote effort-small potatoes compared to what he had gotten away with for more than a decade, vividly and hilariously chronicled in this outrageous career retrospective. For 13 years, Raymond worked his way up the ranks of GOP operatives by smearing opponents and worse in campaigns across the country, including the aborted presidential bid of Steve Forbes. Besides documenting such ingenious strategies as arranging for phone calls during the Super Bowl touting his candidate's opponent, Raymond witnesses the Republican party's rise to power in the 1990s, and the effects of that power, in both professional and personal terms. ("Bill Martini's screaming fits were reaching exciting new heights all the time.") Though Raymond appreciates the depravity of his former enterprise ("if you could find two of us Republican operatives who could still tell the difference between politics and crime, you could probably have rubbed us together for fire as well"), his confession often sounds a lot like boasting; naturally, Raymond is charming enough to get away with it, taking a deliciously cynical view of everyone involved (voters especially). For those who care about the electoral system, this look inside the sausage factory of contemporary campaigning is compelling, arguably essential, reading.
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Review

"Raymond offers an insider's look at the world of dirty campaigning and hardball politics. [A]n engaging read...the book is hard to put down." -- Nathaniel French, St. Petersburg Times --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1 edition (January 8, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416552227
• ISBN-13: 978-1416552222
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #631,581 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

59 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The truth hurts, but it's also REALLY funny..., December 29, 2007

By	Stanley Moss "Stan" (California, USA) - See all my reviews

This book confirms everything you suspected was true about how politicians get elected in the country. It has the tone of a P.J. O'Rourke novel, hilarious and all too real at the same time because it happened. I laughed all the way through it, and then watched Hardball with Chris Matthews in a whole new light once I was done. One reviewer asked "who has ever heard of this guy?" and that is exactly the point! These nameless, faceless operatives and consultants are legion in both political parties and they are the ones who actually decide what candidates say, do, wear, etc. Raymond was a very high level player at the Republican National Committee, chief of staff to a republican congressman and ran numerous campaigns at the national level, he saw it all from the inside and it's not pretty. A great read, I highly recommend.

61 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious hijinks, December 28, 2007

By	AiBomb (Hoboken, NJ) - See all my reviews

If you loved the book or movie THANK YOU FOR SMOKING, you'll love this book. I'm a political junky, but i've shared the book with someone who isn't, and he agreed with me this is laugh-out loud funny. For those who read TalkingPoints memo or DailyKos et al, you'll remember this story about New Hampshire phone jamming in the 2004. This book gives you real behind-the-scenes stuff on the political trenches from backwater NJ campaigns to the RNC and the major leagues: presidential politics. Makes you wonder: what's happening in 2008?

68 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonder why they don't want you to read this book?, January 2, 2008

By	Betsy Devine "Betsy Devine" (Cambridge, MA) - See all my reviews

This is a colorful, frank, and profane memoir of seamy politics by a pro whose Republican pals threw him under the bus when one of their dirty tricks (and not the dirtiest one in his book) started making some headlines.

If you want to see what the top of the Republican world looks like to an RNC hotshot (and Raymond was picked by the RNC to teach their up-and-comers just how to do business) this book is for you. "If you don't know who the sucker in the room is, it's you." See Karl Rove in a glass cage orchestrating his minions "like Darth Vader in his life-support pod." Hear GWB make the same joke again and again with staffers (and no one else) laughing each time. Observe the surprisingly seamy tactics of DCI Group's Tony Feather and Tom Synhorst.

Allen Raymond spent fifteen years on the Karl Rove side of Republican politics. This book details many stunts more colorful than phone-jamming. Deceptive robocalls to Democrats from "scary black men" or "actors putting on thick Spanish accents" worked wonders at keeping them home on Election Day. Swapping soft money for hard--funneling GOP dollars to "spoiler" Democratic candidates--engineering repeat contributions from donors who had already given their legal limit--Raymond names names and shows how each trick works. During one Superbowl, Allen masterminded a midgame annoying phone call to--maybe you just have to read the book to understand that one.

Probably the biggest reason that GOP insiders want you not to read this book is that it showcases the in-crowd's complete contempt for their supporters -- "the Jesus-loves-guns crowd" -- "the knuckle-draggers, the gunnies, and the committed ideologue nuts." "The mouth-breathers who who decide GOP primaries might allow people to steal their money and send their children to impossible wars but they'll cut no such slack for baby-killers."

Chances are "mouth-breathers" won't read Raymond's book. I hope you will. The Senate Judiciary Committee can't seem to get off the dime to release the much-needed Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act so it can get voted on. Maybe this book will help more people see the light about why it is needed.