You could go back to the mayoral election in SF...1975, and Jim Jones with his regional church ‘racket’ helped to defeat the GOP guy....John Barbagelata, and bring George Moscone to power. That one single defeat shifted the base of power in the entire area, and ended the GOP as a player in local politics.
The cult players came in and canvased moderate neighborhoods, and got people enthusiastic about Moscone, and then they brought in busloads....maybe into a couple of thousand non-residents to vote in the city election.
The Red Dupe author was still looking for the good that Jim Jones did over the years.
Just like Red Asner wanted to make a pro-Stalin film declaring that he’d done things besides killing 20,000,000 Russians.