What does work the refs mean?

Question

Never heard it before this election business in the US.

Answer 1

It's when a campaign works the media to even out their coverage.  For example, all the media was talking about for a while was Obama's association with Rev. Wright, which cast him in a negative light to the voters.  The object is to get the media to report on something negative about his opponent, which at the time was Hillary Clinton, thus evening out their coverage.