For the last few months, there has been fear and loathing on the campaign trail for both parties. Both candidates battled in the trenches during the primaries, fought back countless attacks from their own party and, more recently, from each other. They have taken every challenge thrown their way and overcame each to reach a common goal — become President of the United States. The only way for one candidate to reach that goal is to go through the next challenge: the voters.

On Sept. 30, Joseph Cummins, author of “Anything for a Vote,” came to Northern Kentucky University to speak about how, throughout our nation’s history, presidential candidates used dirty tactics to get ahead in elections. Cummins went back in history to our first president, George Washington. He proceeded to pinpoint certain events and people in other elections. For example, Thomas Jefferson hired a writer to come up with outlandish statements about John Adams and it worked, to some extent.

“As Americans we are willing to believe anything,” Cummins said, “We care a lot about war and gas prices