Product Description

Fresh out of grad school, Allen Raymond joined the GOP for one reason: rumor had it that there was big money to be made on the Republican side of the aisle.

From the earliest days of the Republican Revolution through its culmination in the second Bush White House, Raymond played a key role in helping GOP candidates twist the truth beyond recognition during a decade of crucial and bitterly fought campaigns. His career took him from the nastiest of local elections in New Jersey backwaters through runs for Congress and the Senate and right up to a top management position in a bid for the presidency itself.

It also took him to prison.

Full of wit and candor, Raymond's account offers an astonishingly frank look at the black art of campaigning and the vagaries of the Republican establishment. Unlike many "architects" of the political scene, the author takes full responsibility for his actions -- even as he never misses a trick.

A completely original tale of the disillusioning of a man who enters politics with no illusions, How to Rig an Election is a brilliant and hilarious exposé of how the contemporary political game is really played.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #154187 in Books
• Published on: 2008-09-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

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.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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

Review
"For those who care about the electoral system, this look inside the sausage factory of contemporary campaigning is compelling, arguably essential, reading." -- Publishers Weekly

"Refreshingly candid about his vindictive motives, Raymond offers a damning chronicle of political hubris." -- Kirkus Reviews

"Paints a picture of the corruption of modern politics that should leave no doubt about the creativity and cynicism of operatives like Mr. Raymond or the need for tough new election-reform legislation." -- Adam Cohen, The New York Times

"Offers a raw, inside glimpse of the phone scandal as it unraveled and of a ruthless world in which political operatives seek to win at all costs." -- McClatchy News Service

"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

Customer Reviews

The truth hurts, but it's also REALLY funny...
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.

Hilarious hijinks
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?

Wonder why they don't want you to read this book?
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.