Overview
The most influential people in a political race aren't the campaign managers, the strategists or even the candidates themselves. In fact, you won't even find them on a campaign's list of official members or volunteers.Enter the world of the political hitman. Few know that these operatives exist, and campaigns go to great effort to distance themselves from the people who dig up their dirt. But political hitmen wield a secretly powerful position in today's American politics, where scandals derail campaigns and negative campaigning decides who gets elected and who doesn't.
For the past twelve years, Stephen Marks has worked silently behind the scenes as one of the country's top opposition researchers: a political hitman and an assassin of reputations. Confessions of a Political Hitman is Marks's intensely personal and explosive story through more than a decade in the underbelly of American political campaigns.
From his early days in politics through his rapid movement into the secret world of opposition research, Marks discovers a talent for digging up dirt and uncovering political liabilities. His work involves a wide scope of American politics, from state governments to presidential elections to the Republican Revolution. But the exciting work soon leads to disillusionment as candidates he believed in turn out to be worse than expected, and hypocrisy abounds on both sides of the political fence. Eventually Marks finds himself living in the shadows, both politically and personally, and searching for escape.
In Confessions of a Political Hitman, Marks reveals the fascinating and incredible details of what really goes on behind the scenes in Americancampaigning-including the political realities behind the campaigns, careers and attack ads of some of Washington's heavy hitters, including George W. Bush, John Kerry, Jack Abramoff and countless others.
Confessions of a Political Hitman is one man's story about secrets, lies, hypocrisy and influence-painting a troubling picture of whom we elect and how they get elected.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
Part memoir, part industry exposé, Marks's account relates how he became a Republican Party operative digging up dirt on Democratic candidates. His field goes by the name "opposition research." It is mostly legal, according to Marks, but usually secretive and, by his own evolving standards, frequently immoral. Marks drifted into the field during the first half of the 1990s and became a true believer in the GOP cause. The book names names and cites examples, from local races to statewide campaigns (Jeb Bush vs. Lawton Chiles) and includes contests for the U.S. Senate (Jesse Helms vs. Harvey Gantt) and U.S. House of Representatives, as well as presidential elections (Bob Dole vs. Bill Clinton and John Kerry vs. George W. Bush). Marks began writing the book after coming to doubt his vocation's ethics. Despite this turnabout, he is not an admirable whistleblower with a likable personality. Marks's tone and language drip with sleaze heightened by passages about his womanizing. In fact, that and often poor treatment of candidates and staff members might lead readers to conclude that Marks fell lower than his clients. Marks has written an important book that fills a gap in the popular literature about American politics, but it is not a pleasant read. (Jan.)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business InformationLibrary Journal
Research on the opposition has been a part of U.S. political campaigns almost since the start. "Going negative" is effective, and desperate candidates will do so when poll numbers go south and campaigns are in danger of being lost. That's when people like Marks are called upon to dig up dirt on the opposition. Marks (radio host, KFNX, Phoenix) worked as a political "opposition research specialist" from 1992 to 2006. He wants his book to help Americans decide "whether or not all the negativity . . . is a necessary evil to create an educated voter, or instead is something we can all do without." In unsavory detail, he relates his work as "Oppo Man" for various Republican Party entities and PACs, uncovering financial, personal, and political information on Democrats and occasionally other Republicans. Chapters are devoted to specific races and candidates or to background on how various "dirty tricks" were researched and effected. As in any confession, opinion and one-sided storytelling abound. However, Marks candidly explains his disillusionment with the work he did and with many of the political figures he helped to elect. Readers who enjoy political gossip may find the book interesting, even if they find little to admire about "Oppo Man" himself. Recommended for public libraries.
—Jill Ortner