David Daley

The way dark money was translated into congressional majorities is one of the great, sinister stories of our time. But in David Daley the shadowy figures have finally met their match.” —Thomas Frank, author of What’s the Matter with Kansas? “An alarming study of the GOP’s redrawing of the American political map across the country… Daley takes on each significant state race in turn and notes that despite the country’s pulling more center-left on many issues, the far right is going to be calling the shots until 2020. The author looks at the masterminds behind the strategy and the mapmaking technology as well as the roles of restrictive voting rights laws, ‘dark money,’ and voter turnout. A chilling intimation of the growing entrenchment of partisan politics.” —Kirkus Reviews What happens when a team of canny Republican operatives spend $30 million to influence down-ballot political races and tip state legislatures from blue to red? A massive redrawing of electoral lines that has locked Democrats out of power in Congress for years to come, exacerbated gridlock, and fostered the kind of political climate that has given rise to Donald Trump. Welcome to the world David Daley vividly describes in RATF**KED, where Moneyball meets the Beltway. Back in 2008, the Democratic Party was riding high and feeling a tad cocky due to their sophisticated methods at mobilizing the vote for Barack Obama. Modern politicking and grassroots fund raising were redefined for the Facebook era—and Republicans looked woefully out of touch with the electorate. Yet out of that defeat was hatched a brilliant, and very low tech and low profile, revenge. Enter Operation REDMAP (aka, Redistricting Majority Project), a 21st century gloss on a 19th century game of political subterfuge: gerrymandering. Karl Rove, Ed Gillespie, and a young, up-and-coming operative named Chris Jankowski quickly realized that redistricting—essentially where voters vote—would be up for grabs with the latest census results in 2010. Flip as many legislatures in key swing states, and districts could be redrawn to reflect Republican interests. David Daley, editor in chief of Salon, lays out in fascinating detail the efforts (sometimes ruthless, often comical) to spread dark money around unglamorous local contests where Tip O’Neill warned us the real power lies. While the Democrats were essentially on autopilot, focusing on Obama’s re-election and maintaining their majority in the Senate, Jankowski and his crew got granular and took on contests for state house seats, states attorneys general, and local judgeships in places like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Florida, and North Carolina. Succeeding beyond their wildest dreams, the resulting Republican legislatures got down to work with a diabolical artistry, though the results may have looked more Rorschach than Jackson Pollack. In Pennsylvania, for example, the 7th Congressional District is now so perversely redrawn—extending from Lancaster and Reading, through parts of Philadelphia and Amish Country—that it now looks like Donald Duck kicking Goofy. And Michigan’s 14th –coiled like a snake around impoverished Detroit—carves lines between rich and poor, black and white with scary proficiency. Driving the perimeter of the district, Daley discovers the mapmaker’s cruel joke of making the end of the line a garbage dump. The great untold story of the Republican comeback that gets at the roots of our contemporary political dysfunction, RATF**KED is a thrilling work of reportage that calls to mind the best of Michael Lewis or Richard Ben Kramer. ABOUT THE AUTHORS: David Daley is the editor in chief of Salon and the Digital Media Fellow for the Wilson Center for Humanities and the Arts and the Grady School of Journalism at the University of Georgia. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.