Acknowledgments

As always, I have such a list of people to thank that I know I will miss too many. Thank you to my fabulous agent, Vicky Bijur, and all in her office; my equally fabulous editor Michaela Hamilton and the great team at Kensington; Richard Alan Moore and Tom Avitabile, who provided much insight into political workings; my sisters, who are always available to provide editorial comment and moral support; and my husband Russ, who explained how to kill someone with electricity.

This book required a great deal of research, as constant and frenetic as the topic itself. I found countless articles, documentary videos and news items to give me real-life examples. Cleveland’s Plain Dealer provided thorough coverage of the Cuyahoga County corruption trials which gave me the inspiration for Joey Green. Some of the books I studied were: Linda Killian’s The Swing Vote: The Untapped Power of Independents, Susan Delacourt’s Shopping for Votes: How Politicians Choose Us and We Choose Them, Trey Radel’s Democrazy: A True Story of Weird Politics, Money, Madness, and Finger Food, and John Perkins’ Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.