Congressional Elections : Campaigning at Home and in Washington

Arguing that successful candidates run two campaigns-one for votes, the other for resources, Herrnson uses campaign finance data, original survey research, and hundreds of interviews to look at how this dual strategy affects the electoral system. New coverage includes: cases studies from the 2010 elections; the impact of the Tea Party on fundraising and election outcomes; the effect of the Citizens United and other recent cases on corporate, trade association, and labor union spending; untangling the web of PACs, Super PACs, 527s, and 501(C)s and their fundraising and spending advantages; the pervasive use of social media and Internet campaigns to raise money, communicate with voters, and recruit volunteers.

Paul S. Herrnson is Director of the Center for American Politics and Citizenship, Professor in the Department of Government and Politics, and Distinguished Scholar-Teacher at the University of Maryland. His research and teaching interests include political parties and elections, money and politics, and voting technology and ballot design. He has published numerous articles and books, including Voting Technology. The Not-So-Simple Act of Costing a Ballot and The Financiers of Congressional Elections. Dr. Herrnson has served as President of the Southern Political Science Association and as an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow. He has advised the U.S. Congress, the Maryland General Assembly, and the Federal Election Commission, as well as numerous government agencies and nongovernmental organizations, on matters pertaining to campaign finance, political parties, and election reform.