I've not found any news stories about the current election. I suppose things we'll heat up in the summer. Trying to remember when the Swift Boat news broke, for example. But here's a little:

Maligning an opponent, even with his own words and deeds, is a tricky business; voters take a dim view of "negative" politics, and are liable to punish the campaign carrying out the attacks rather than the intended target. Digging the Dirt provides a rare glimpse of how political operatives have learned to use the media to get around this problem, by creating a journalistic black market for damaging stories. During the first debate between Gore and Bush, in October of 2000, the BBC crew stationed itself inside the RNC's war room, filming researchers as they operated with the manic intensity of day traders, combing through every one of Gore's statements for possible misstatements or exaggerations. The researchers discovered two (Gore erroneously claimed never to have questioned Bush's experience, and to have accompanied a federal official to the site of a Texas disaster), and immediately Tim Griffin tipped off the Associated Press. Soon the filmmakers would catch the team exulting as the AP took the story.

Similar scenarios occurred countless times, on both sides, during the campaign. The operatives' sophisticated understanding of the media and their ability to manipulate the reporting of political news helps explain how Gore's public image shifted from that of stiff but competent technocrat at the outset of the campaign to that of serial exaggerator who would say anything to get elected. The steady stream of stories reinforcing this notion took its toll—a fact neatly documented by the filmmakers' shot of the New York Post after the debate: Gore beneath the headline "LIAR! LIAR!" Atlantic (2004)

Some backstories on the old days:

Donald Henry Segretti (born September 17, 1941 in San Marino, California) was a political operative for the Committee to Re-elect the President (Nixon) during the 1970s. Segretti was hired by friend Dwight L. Chapin to run a campaign of dirty tricks (which he dubbed "ratfucking") against the Democrats. His actions were part of the larger Watergate scandal. Karl Rove was Segretti's protege during the 1972 Nixon campaign.Donald Segretti

Another way of doing the job:

In 1992, Carville helped lead Bill Clinton to a win against George H. W. Bush in the Presidential election. In 1993, Carville was honored as Campaign Manager of the Year by the American Association of Political Consultants. His role on the Clinton campaign was documented in the feature-length Academy Award-nominated film, The War Room. One of the formulations he used in that campaign has entered the language, derived from a list he posted in the war room to help focus himself and his staff, with these three points:

1. Change vs. more of the same.
2. The economy, stupid.
3. Don't forget health care.
James Carville

A Rovian approach:

During the 2000 Republican primary, a South Carolina push poll used racist innuendo intended to undermine the support of Bush rival John McCain: "Would you be more likely or less likely to vote for John McCain for president if you knew he had fathered an illegitimate black child?" The authors of the 2003 book and subsequent film Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential, allege that Rove was involved. In the movie, John Weaver, political director for McCain's 2000 campaign bid, says "I believe I know where that decision was made; it was at the top of the [Bush] campaign". McCain campaign manager Richard Davis said he "had no idea who had made those calls, who paid for them, or how many were made", and Rove has denied any such involvement. Karl Rove.

Here's more current news on the subject:

When Mr. Raymond opened a political telemarketing firm, he was hired by a Republican challenging a New Jersey Democratic congressman. Mr. Raymond’s company — in a plan he says he hatched with the challenger’s advisers — called liberal Democrats and urged them to vote for the Green Party candidate.

Those same advisers, he says, gave Mr. Raymond another assignment: to call white households asking them to vote for the Democrat, using the voice of, as he puts it, a “ghetto black guy.” He also called union households, using voices with thick Spanish accents.

No one is suggesting that Mr. Sununu knew anything about the phone jamming. Mr. Raymond says his instructions came from James Tobin, the northeast regional director of the Republican National Committee. And he says a top official of the New Hampshire Republican Party provided the phone numbers of the Democratic get-out-the-vote banks. Mr. Raymond jammed the lines — placing hundreds of hang-up calls an hour — to five Democratic offices across the state and a phone bank run by volunteer firefighters. NYTimes