Campaigns, Inc.

In two widely read (at the time) but little-known (now) short novels, author Upton Sinclair described, first, his campaign for governor of California (fiction that came true), and then, his defeat (nonfiction), which he ascribes to what he called the Lie Factory run by the opposition. This was in the early '30s, and the real-life version of the Factory was actually the world's first political-consulting firm: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/09/24/120924fa_fact_lepore