Currinder, Marian.  Money in the House: campaign funds and congressional party politics.  Westview, 2009.  230p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780813343792  pbk, $30.00. Reviewed in 2009mar CHOICE.
46-4118  JK1319  2008-13147 CIP 

Currinder (Univ. of Georgetown) has produced a fine little primer that explains the importance of money in the House of Representatives. Money--"the mother's milk of politics"--is central to getting elected, staying elected, and gaining and retaining positions of power in the House hierarchy. Currinder makes clear that money is the central focus of interest and activity for members; legislation takes a secondary role. Cynics in Washington define an honest politician as one who when bought stays bought. Currinder shows that even this adage is no longer true; the top bidder invariably wins out. Lobbyists, the fourth branch of government, play a central role. Practically every representative comes to Washington branded with a for-sale tag, but the House intramural buying and selling is an ongoing activity. This is a fascinating look at the inner workings of Congress, well written, and free from jargon. The book compares favorably to David Graham Philips's 1906 classic The Treason of the Senate. Unfortunately for ideologues, party makes no difference; the "rule of money" prevails. Currinder neither nominates any heroes nor offers any panacea. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels. -- S. L. Harrison, University of Miami 

Dancing without partners: how candidates, parties, and interest groups interact in the presidential campaign, ed. by David B. Magleby, J. Quin Monson, and Kelly D. Patterson.  Rowman & Littlefield, 2007.  191p index afp ISBN 0-7425-5349-3, $70.00; ISBN 0742553507  pbk, $28.95; ISBN 9780742553491, $70.00; ISBN 9780742553507  pbk, $28.95. Reviewed in 2007jan CHOICE.
44-2954  JK5262004  2006-7192 CIP 
 
This study, sponsored by the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy at Brigham Young University, addresses an important question: has campaign finance reform worked? The reform analyzed is the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA), also known as the McCain-Feingold Act, as it was applied in 2004 to presidential and congressional races in five case-study states. Among the many conclusions are that campaign finance reform did not weaken the ability of political parties to fund state and local grassroots and media campaigns as initially feared. Indeed, the BCRA forced candidates and parties to focus more attention on raising money from individuals, which in turn set a record for individual campaign contributions. For the first time in decades, the Democratic National Committee raised and spent more than the Republican National Committee, while hundreds of organizations conducted sophisticated voter registration drives, get-out-the-vote drives, and targeted media campaigns. The book's title derives from the editors' comparing "the various relationships between candidates, parties and interest groups ... to an elaborate dance" with many new participants and where "many of the partners that used to dance together now dance alone or have switched partners." Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through practitioners. -- E. C. Dreyer, emeritus, University of Tulsa 

Farrar-Myers, Victoria A.  Limits and loopholes: the quest for money, free speech, and fair elections, by Victoria A. Farrar-Myers and Diana Dwyre.  CQ Press, 2008.  190p index afp; ISBN 9780872893290  pbk, $26.95. Reviewed in 2008jul CHOICE.
45-6442  JK1991  2007-38669 CIP
 
This is a policy analysis of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, more commonly known by the names of its Senate sponsors, McCain-Feingold, even though the law is actually the House version originally known as the Shays-Meehan Act. Farrar-Myers (Univ. of Texas, Arlington) and Dwyre (California State Univ., Chico) describe the long legislative struggle to pass the law, the court decisions that found most of its provisions constitutional, and the Federal Election Commission rulings that modified the meaning of the act. They also evaluate the act's impact upon campaign spending. This book includes an interesting discussion of loopholes in the act, which allow candidates to evade both contribution limits and reporting requirements. These loopholes include creating independent 527 political committees, forming nonprofit 501 organizations, and developing taxable corporations as vehicles for unregulated campaign activities. It is a short, thorough analysis of US efforts to regulate campaign spending and an excellent supplementary text. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers and undergraduate students. -- A. D. McNitt, Eastern Illinois University 

Follow the Money: National Institute on Money in State Politics.  Internet Resource. Reviewed in 2009dec CHOICE.
47-2272
http://www.followthemoney.org/
 
[Visited Sep'09] Follow the Money describes itself as "the nation's most complete resource for information on money in state politics," and there is no reason to doubt that claim. It could equally be described as the state government version of the OpenSecrets Web site http://www.opensecrets.org/ (CH, Feb'99, 36-3604), which traces contributions at the federal level. Follow the Money is not quite as easy to read and navigate as Open Secrets, but it works well and should be added to any basic list of useful Web sites for students of US government. The National Institute on Money in Politics runs the site, which is reliable and generally up-to-date through 2008. The site will be useful mostly for finding quick facts about contributions--e.g., who is giving the most to a specific candidate, how much did those running for a certain office raise? It includes topical research reports on contributions around the country, which might be helpful both for professional researchers and undergraduates. The latter will also find it easy to learn what legislative districts they are in, which is a good starting point for the novice. More links to other sites would be helpful, and saving and printing tables could be easier, but, overall, Follow the Money provides an important service conveniently. Summing Up: Recommended. All readership levels. --
J. Heyrman, Berea College 

Hohenstein, Kurt.  Coining corruption: the making of the American campaign finance system.  Northern Illinois, 2007.  310p bibl index afp ISBN 0-87580-377-6, $45.00; ISBN 9780875803777, $45.00. Reviewed in 2008feb CHOICE.
45-3475  JK1991  2007-16730 CIP
 
The impact of money on American political campaigns has been the subject of significant debate since George Washington was president. The history of the regulatory efforts to control this money is the subject of this book, which traces the story of campaign finance reform from the post-Civil War period to the passage of the McCain-Feingold reforms in 2002. In telling this story Hohenstein (history, Winona State Univ.) makes three arguments. First, while the goal of these reforms was perhaps clear during the Progressive Era and in the passage of the Tillman Act, which banned corporate contributions to federal campaigns, it is no longer certain. Thus, at least since Watergate, reform ideas have blossomed, but the consensus as to what, if anything, needs to be done to address the role of money in politics has evaporated. Second, the author contends that many of the post-Watergate reforms simply have not worked, often producing contrary outputs. Third, the concept of corruption has expanded over time, yielding various diagnoses regarding what types of political practices should be regulated. A good overall evaluation on the history of money and politics in American elections, suitable for collections on campaigns, elections, and American politics. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels. -- D. Schultz, Hamline University 

Inside the campaign finance battle: court testimony on the new reforms, ed. by Anthony Corrado, Thomas E. Mann, and Trevor Potter.  Brookings, 2003.  333p afp ISBN 0-8157-1583-8  pbk, $28.95. Reviewed in 2004dec CHOICE.
42-2487    Orig 

In 2002, after years of debate, Congress passed the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA), the most significant campaign finance reform in a quarter century. Opponents immediately filed legal challenges that were consolidated in McConnell v. FEC. With tens of thousands of pages of testimony from dozens of expert and fact witnesses, the case opened an important window on the state of campaign finance reform. In this volume, Corrado (Colby College), Mann (Brookings), and Potter (Campaign Legal Center), long-time students of campaign finance issues and supporters of reform, open this massive record to a wider audience. Since publication, the Supreme Court, split 5-4, largely upheld the BCRA in December 2003. But the editors' balanced selection and refusal of commentary allows readers to evaluate the evidentiary record themselves guided only by the enduring themes around which the selections are organized: Will the law strengthen or undermine the positive roles of parties in American politics? Can issue advocacy be regulated without harm to basic principles of free speech? Does fundraising corrupt or give the appearance of corrupting politics, and can the law do anything about it? Continued debate informed by books like this will tell. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels. –
T. Fackler, University of Texas at Austin 

La Raja, Raymond J.  Small change: money, political parties, and campaign finance reform.  Michigan, 2008.  287p bibl index afp ISBN 0-472-07028-2, $70.00; ISBN 9780472050284  pbk, $24.95; ISBN 9780472070282, $70.00; ISBN 0472050281  pbk, $24.95.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2008oct CHOICE.
46-1165  JK1991  2007-39068 CIP
 
This book is a substantial contribution to the literature on campaign finance reform. The drive for campaign finance reform is typically conceptualized as an exercise in public interest advocacy; reformers, the story goes, press for changes seeking to "improve the political system." La Raja (Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst) argues that reforms are better understood as a partisan battle between political parties seeking electoral advantage. From this perspective reform "is more likely to transpire during times of electoral uncertainty about resources for one of the major political parties." Taking this one step further, he argues that reforms are the product of intraparty factional competition. La Raja's work is also notable in that he demonstrates that campaign finance reform has had enduring consequences for the US party system, and that the Democratic and Republican parties have responded differently to it. In the especially well-conceived conclusion, La Raja neatly summarizes his findings and considers the implications of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002. His approach is both historically and quantitatively sophisticated, but also accessible. Political professionals and political scientists will benefit from close consideration of his arguments and his findings. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and up. -- S. Q. Kelly, California State University Channel Islands 

MAPLight.org.  Internet Resource. Reviewed in 2009dec CHOICE.
47-1787     
http://maplight.org/
 
[Visited Sep'09] MAPLight.org (Money and Politics: Illuminating the Connection) aims to "illuminate the connections between campaign donations and legislative votes." The site provides users with the capability to mine three sets of data: bill texts and legislative voting records, supporting/opposing interests for each bill, and campaign contribution data (which comes from the Center for Responsive Politics and the National Institute on Money in State Politics). A six-minute video tour on the main page goes a bit quickly, but is a good tutorial on accessing the large amounts of information available. One may search for Interest Groups (by category or keyword/name), Legislators (by clicking on a map or name, or searching by name), or Bills (by subject or keyword/bill number).

Each bill includes information on interest groups that are supporters and opponents, legislative votes on the bill, a time line of contributions and votes, the history and status of the bill, and links to online news articles about the bill. Each interest group category includes top recipients funded with total amounts (currently listing January 2003-June 2009), and a list of bills supported and opposed. Each legislator page lists committee membership, funding received from top interest groups and organizations, and money received near the date (variable up to 30 days) of voting on bills. Currently, the site also features information on the California State Legislature, with plans to expand in the next several years to coverage of the ten most populous states. The site offers many opportunities for users to participate by adding comments, linking to news stories, and adding information about interest groups. (One of the required fields when adding this type of information is a source; MAPLight's researchers will investigate before adding user-submitted information.) Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-level undergraduates through faculty/researchers; general readers. -- S. Jent, University of Louisville 

The New campaign finance sourcebook, by Anthony Corrado et al.  Brookings, 2005.  292p index afp ISBN 0815700059  pbk, $26.95. Reviewed in 2007jan CHOICE.
44-2959  JK1991  2005-22910 CIP 
 
A great problem of governmental design, as Madison described it in Federalist 51, is to create a system of government that controls not merely the governed but itself. Campaign finance rules are an important form of this type of governmental self-regulation. This long-promised, thoroughly revised update of Campaign Finance Reform: A Sourcebook (Brookings, 1997) edited by Corrado (Colby College), Mann (Brookings), Ortiz (Virginia School of Law), and Potter (attorney and Brookings fellow) surveys the state of federal campaign finance law after passage of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 that the first volume helped create. In separate chapters it surveys the history and current state of federal campaign finance law and delves into First Amendment limits to campaign finance reform, disclosure laws, the role of parties, public funding of presidential campaigns, election law-governed speech, the Federal Election Commission, and the Internet and election law. The final chapter lays out an agenda for the next round of reform. As complex, tedious, and perpetually unfinished as campaign finance reform is, the authors imply, it is part of the necessary work of republican self-government. Summing Up: Essential. General readers, lower-division undergraduates through practitioners. -- T. Fackler, University of Texas at Austin 

OpenSecrets.org.  Internet Resource. Reviewed in 2004sup CHOICE.
41Sup-0578     
http://www.opensecrets.org/ 

Want to know whether your neighbors gave to a political party or cause in the last couple of election cycles? If so, the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) Web site is the place to find out. The CRP's site is a virtual gold mine for scholars studying the influence of money in contemporary congressional politics. The CRP's purpose is to "study Congress and particularly the role that money plays in its elections and actions." Given that goal, the CRP has done an outstanding job of compiling what is essentially a lot of public information and making it readily available to anyone with access to the Web. Indeed, the site puts print counterparts of this same information to shame. Information that might take hours of searching in the government documents section of a library takes only seconds to find on the CRP site. Given that nearly all the information has been culled from public records, the quality and reliability of the data is only questionable if the public record is questionable. In addition, coverage is generally comprehensive. Visitors can discover information that ranges from who the potential 2000 presidential candidates are (and which PACs they control) to how much money (and from whom) individual members of Congress have raised in the last few election cycles. In addition, databases on issues such as the President's Legal Defense Trust, PACs and their campaign contribution budgets, and congressional travel are available for downloading. This data is outlined at the top of the index page in six "headline" links. The site is relatively easy to navigate, although the bottom of the index page suffers from small font type that is very difficult to read. Recommended for all levels. -- Q. Kidd, Christopher Newport University

Redish, Martin H.  Money talks: speech, economic power, and the values of democracy.  New York University, 2001.  319p index afp ISBN 0-8147-7538-1, $35.00. Reviewed in 2002mar CHOICE.
39-4257  JK1991  2001-1102 CIP 
 
The First Amendment's freedom of speech clause is interpreted to protect expression that is essential to self-realization or growth, or necessary for the promotion of democratic values and political debate. Few question the protection of free speech for individuals, but does it extend to commercial and corporate speech? The first two chapters review current US case law on commercial and corporate speech and the various theories on what the First Amendment free speech clause means and protects. The author contends that the logic of current legal doctrine is that corporations and commercial speech deserve the same constitutional defense that is afforded to any other type of protected speech by individuals. If that is true, then any effort to restrict the expenditure of money for political purposes is a violation of the First Amendment. Thus, the central claim of the book is that all campaign finance reform proposals that aim to limit the use of money for expressive purposes are unconstitutional. Overall, a very readable book containing the best arguments thus far opposing campaign finance reform. Suitable for collections on the First Amendment, free speech, and money and politics. All levels. -- D. Schultz, Hamline University 

Samples, John.  The fallacy of campaign finance reform.  Chicago, 2006.  375p index afp ISBN 0-226-73450-1, $29.00; ISBN 9780226734507, $29.00. Reviewed in 2008jan CHOICE.
45-2890  JK1991  2006-17449 CIP 
 
Proposals and debates over the financing of political campaigns generally divide into two camps. One side argues that money spent for political purposes is not protected speech under the First Amendment and it may be regulated. Conversely, others argue that money is speech and therefore it may not be regulated. Samples (director, Center for Representative Government, Cato Institute) champions the latter camp. Assuming a self-avowed libertarian credo, the author develops a well-argued, articulate case to show that efforts to regulate money in politics are rooted in a Progressive Era vision of reform, contrary to what he calls a Madisonian vision of the Constitution, which protects liberty. While Samples considers that campaign finance reform--a term he refuses to use and attacks with derision--threatens constitutional liberty, two other broad arguments are directed against it. First, the track record of reform has proven that it is a failure. Second, these reforms are ideologically biased, favoring the interests of its advocates. Samples advocates deregulating campaign financing, opposing even mandatory disclosure of contributions and expenditures. Good choice for campaign finance and campaigns and elections collections. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers, upper-division undergraduates through practitioners. -- D. Schultz, Hamline University 

Smith, Bradley A.  Unfree speech: the folly of campaign finance reform.  Princeton, 2001.  286p bibl index afp ISBN 0-691-07045-8, $26.95. Reviewed in 2001nov CHOICE.
39-1869  JK1991  00-59818 CIP
 
The regulation of money in campaigns and elections has dominated the topic of political reform since Watergate. According to Smith, a member of the Federal Election Commission, efforts to clean up the political process by limiting how much one can spend has not made campaigns more fair, elections less corrupt, or improved the public's confidence in government. Instead of more restrictions, the solution is to remove all limits on how much money one can spend for political purposes, so long as it is disclosed. Beginning with a history of money and politics that commences with George Washington, this readable book provides an overview of numerous efforts to regulate campaign spending. From there Smith questions many of the basic assumptions of current reform strategies--e.g., that too much money is spent on campaigns--and then contends that recent and proposed policies have or will fail. In the end, the author agrees with court decisions that spending money for political purposes is a protected First Amendment free speech right and that only some form of disclosure is constitutionally permitted. Suitable for collections on campaign finance reform, campaigns and elections, and US politics. All levels. -- D. Schultz, Hamline University 

Urofsky, Melvin I.  Money and speech: campaign finance reform and the courts.  University Press of Kansas, 2005.  323p bibl index afp ISBN 0-7006-1403-6, $29.95. Reviewed in 2006mar CHOICE.
43-4327  KF4920  2005-9168 CIP
 
For those seeking a comprehensive and thoroughly researched history of campaign finance in American politics, one need go no further than the extensive review and analysis in this volume. First tracing the reform efforts through the US Supreme Court's 1976 Buckley v. Valeo decision, Urofsky (Virginia Commonwealth Univ.) systematically examines legislative attempts and judicial opinions regulating electioneering activities within the bounds of the First Amendment. This leads to a focus on the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act (McCain-Feingold), through the trials within Congress, the lower courts, and the Supreme Court. While he professes to have been moved from advocacy to opposition on this issue, Urofsky clearly and methodically presents all sides of the controversy over regulating campaign speech. Not until his discussion of the Supreme Court's majority opinions does the author offer his own critiques of the law and judicial opinions. This admirable book serves as a definitive resource for understanding a complex subject for readers of all levels. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers through practitioners. -- J. Michael Bitzer, Catawba College 

Wallison, Peter J.  Better parties, better government: a realistic program for campaign finance reform, by Peter J. Wallison and Joel M. Gora.  AEI Press, 2009.  172p index; ISBN 9780844742700, $30.00; ISBN 9780844742717  pbk, $20.00. Reviewed in 2009nov CHOICE.
47-1710  JK1991  2009-7698 CIP 
 
Almost everyone inside and outside of Washington, DC, agrees that the US campaign finance system is broken. The system requires that members of Congress invest considerable time raising money, drawing them away from the important work of governing; the coincidence of fund-raising and policy making creates the appearance of impropriety and undermines citizen trust in government; the need to raise piles of money advantages wealthy candidates who can self-finance their campaigns. This provocative book critiques the current system, carefully examines extant reform proposals, and offers a prescription for reform. Wallison (American Enterprise Institute) and Gora (Brooklyn Law School) argue for a party-centered system that allows parties to raise and distribute funds to their candidates. They claim that empowering the political parties will result in more coherent governance and increase electoral accountability. The book is a good review of the complexities of campaign finance; it is thought-provoking and their reform is worthy of consideration by policy makers. Party-centered campaign finance is certainly more politically viable than public financing of congressional elections, which is the most often cited alternative to our current system. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers, upper-division undergraduate students, and above. -- S. Q. Kelly, California State University Channel Islands

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