This unique reader examines a broad sample of campaigns and gives students a real flavor of campaign politics by including some of the most interesting, colorful, and surprising races. Combining on-the-ground accounts with links to scholarship, the nineteen case studies drawn from Campaigns and Elections magazine take students behind the scenes to unveil the strategies, techniques, and personalities that drive contemporary campaigns. National, state, and local races receive attention, as do state and local referenda.
In their introduction, the editors—a distinguished group of scholars and experts on campaign management—provide helpful background information about the cases. They look at the major influences on and general trends in contemporary electoral politics, including issues, parties, campaign finance, incumbency, and initiative voting. Understanding these factors will help students recognize how each case fits into a broader whole even as that case reflects a uniqueness that makes political campaigns so fascinating.
The cases are illustrated with photos, clips from print and television campaign ads, excerpts from campaign literature, and various tables and scoreboards with polling and election return data.
Preface ix Contributors xi Contemporary American Elections: An Overview 1(30) Michael A. Bailey Ronald A. Faucheux Paul S. Herrnson Clyde Wilcox Part I. Senate Races So Close and Yet So Far 31(14) Two Unpopular Incumbents Meet with Different Fates in California and New York in 1998 Michael A. Bailey They Did It Their Way 45(10) Campaign Finance Principles and Realities Clash in Wisconsin in 1998 Clyde Wilcox Cornhusker Upset 55(7) Underdog Defeats Nebraskas Popular Governor in 1996 Senate Race Doug McAuliffe How to Beat an Incumbent 62(9) The Hard-Fought Senate Race in South Dakota in 1996 Karl Struble The Senator from Central Casting 71(12) How Fred Thompson Turned Tennessee Politics Upside Down in 1994 David Beiler Part II. House Races Professionalism, Progressivism, and People Power 83(10) Baldwins Victory Blends All Three in Wisconsins 2nd District in 1998 David T. Canon Paul S. Herrnson Winning in Unfriendly Territory 93(7) A Republican Victory in New Mexicos 3rd District in 1998 Chris Wilson Mike Burita Beating B-1 Bob 100(6) Underdog Ends Conservatives Congressional Career in Californias 46th District in 1996 Bill Wachob Andrew Kennedy Incumbency and Base 106(6) How a Black Incumbent Won Renomination in a New Majority-White District in Georgia in 1996 John Rowley Coming On Strong Down the Stretch 112(9) Republican Leaves Democrats in the Dust in Kentuckys 2nd District in 1994 Al Cross Part III. State and Local Races The Body Politic Registers a Protest 121(16) Jesse Venturas Stunning Victory for governor or Minnesota in 1998 David Beiler `Bama Bash 137(13) Endorsement Backlash Saves a Governor from Primary Defeat in Alabama in 1998 David Beiler The Squeaky Wheel(s) Make It Interesting 150(6) A Gop Star Barely Survives New Jersey Governors Race in 1997 Peter Wendel Only in Louisiana? 156(10) Populist Message Propels Republican to Governors Mansion in Louisiana in 1995 Ronald A. Faucheux The Unsinkable Willie Brown 166(11) Local Forces Elect Controversial Politician Mayor of San Francisco in 1995 David Beiler Part IV. Referenda and Initiatives Gun Play 177(12) How the NRA Defeated Initiative 676 in Washington State in 1997 Ronald A. Faucheux Political Football 189(7) How the San Francisco 49ers Won a New Stadium and Shopping Mall in 1997 Noah Wepman Using Conservative Values to Support Gay Rights 196(5) How Opponents Defeated Oregons Anti-Gay Rights Referendum in 1994 Bob Meadow Dawn Laguens Heidi Von Szeliski Michael Terris Bay State Class Warfare 201(6) How a ``Guaranteed Income Tax Cut Proposition Was Defeated in Massachusetts in 1994 Phyliss Johnston Index 207
Michael A. Bailey is an assistant professor of government at Georgetown University. His articles on congressional politics have appeared in the American Journal of Political Science, World Politics and elsewhere. His research and teaching interests include elections, representation, Congress, interest groups, methodology, and Japanese politics.
Paul S. Herrnson is director of the Center for American Politics and Citizenship and professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland. He is the author of Congressional Elections: Campaigning at Home and in Washington, 4th ed. (2004) and Party Campaigning in the 1980s (1988) and coauthor of The Financiers of Congressional Elections (2003). He is coeditor of several volumes, including War Stories from Capitol Hill (2003), Responsible Partisanship? The Evolution of American Political Parties Since 1950 (2003), Multiparty Politics in America, 2nd ed. (2002), and Playing Hardball: Campaigning for the U.S. Congress (2000). He has served as an American Political Science Association congressional fellow and has received several teaching awards, including an Excellence in Teaching Award from the University of Maryland.
Ronald A. Faucheux is editor in chief of Campaigns & Elections magazine and Campaign Insider, a weekly newsletter. He produces The Political Oddsmaker, an elections handicapping service, and teaches at the Graduate School of Political Management, George Washington University, and American University. His unique background also includes experiences as a Louisiana state legislator and political media consultant; he has conducted major research studies, written numerous articles, and served as a media commentator and research source for electronic and print news organizations worldwide.
Clyde Wilcox is a professor of government at Georgetown University. He is the author or coauthor of several books, including Serious Money: Fundraising and Contributing in Presidential Nomination Campaigns (1995), Onward Christian Soldiers: The Christian Right in American Politics (1996), and Interest Groups in American Campaigns: The New Face of Electioneering (1999). His edited books include Women in Elected Ofce: Past, Present, and Future (1998), The Politics of Gay Rights (2000), and Understanding Public Opinion, 2nd ed. (2002).
