Going Dirty: The Art of Negative Campaigning »

David Mark is a political news editor in Washington, D.C. A seasoned political journalist, he is a frequent political analyst on television, radio, and in print and online publications, in the United States and abroad. He has also lectured overseas about campaigns and elections to diplomatic, business, academic, and journalism groups. Further information is available at www.DavidMark.org.

Going Dirty is a history of negative campaigning in American politics and an examination of how candidates and political consultants have employed this often-controversial technique. The book includes case studies on notable races throughout the television era in which new negative campaign strategies were introduced, or existing tactics were refined and amplified upon.

Acknowledgments     ix
Eye of the Beholder: Defining Negative Campaigning     1
What Good Old Days? Notable Developments in Negative Campaigning from the Late Eighteenth Century through the Dawn of the Cold War     17
Going Nuclear 1964: The Rise of Television Attack Ads     39
Dismissive Politics: The Governor Against the Actor     55
"The Truth Shall Rise Again": Brock Versus Gore for U.S. Senate, 1970     73
Confrontation, Bluster, and No Compromise: The Campaigns of Jesse Helms     91
Dole-Gingrich: Going Negative Early and Often     111
The Politics of Fear: Negative Campaigning in the Post-9/11 World     127
Opening the Floodgates: Campaign Finance "Reform" and the Rise of Negativity     151
A Double-Edged Sword: When Negative Campaigning Backfires     165
Hitting the Mark: Negative Campaigning Efforts That Just Plain Worked     185
It's in the Mail: Negative Campaigning Comes Home     213
Conclusion: The Future of Negative Campaigning     231
A Race to the Bottom: Negative Campaigning in the 2006 Midterm Elections     243
Selected Bibliography     253
Index     259
About the Author     277