Description

This book looks at the changing of the guard in 2006 and speculates on where the system was heading in 2008. It provides an in-depth examination of the ways in which candidates, interest groups, and parties perceived their opportunities and allocated their campaign resources during the midterm elections. The role of money, which was influenced by campaign finance reform, is a special focus in this book. Political scandal figured into electoral outcomes as Republicans became identified with a “culture of corruption.”

• Examines many of the key competitive races in the 2006 congressional elections including the Ohio Senate race, the Colorado 7th Congressional District race, the Pennsylvania Senate and 6th Congressional District race as well as the Montana Senate race
• Contains up-to-date and easy to read boxed features, tables, and figures
• Concise, clear presentation of key themes including the war in Iraq, political scandal, and campaign finance reform
• Features case studies from preeminent authors William H. Flanigan, Marjorie Randon Hershey, John C. Green, and Stephen Medvic.

Author Info

David B. Magleby is nationally recognized for his expertise on direct democracy, voting behavior, and campaign finance. He received his B.A. from the University of Utah in 1973 and his Ph.D. from the University of California–Berkeley. Currently a Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy, and Dean of the College of Family Home and Social Science at Brigham Young University, Professor Magleby has also taught at the University of California–Santa Cruz, and the University of Virginia.
From 1982 to 2000, Professor Magleby organized and directed the KBYU–Utah Colleges Exit Poll, a statewide poll involving the coordinated efforts of more than 600 students from eight Utah colleges and universities. Most recently, he has directed several major national studies of soft money and interest group issue advocacy in federal elections. During the 1998, 2000, and 2002 election cycle he worked with a consortium of scholars to monitor some of the most competitive U.S. House and Senate races. That research is summarized in his edited books, Outside Money: Soft Money and Issue Advocacy in the 1998 Congressional Elections (2000), The Other Campaign: Soft Money and Issue Advocacy in the 2000 Congressional Elections (2003), and The Last Hurrah? Soft Money and Issue Advocacy in the 2002 Congressional Elections (forthcoming). He has recently been awarded a grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts to conduct similar research in 2004.
Professor Magleby lives in Provo, Utah, with his wife, Linda. They are the parents of four children.

Kelly Patterson is Director of the Center for the Study of Elections Democracy and former chair of the Department of Political Science at Brigham Young University. He received his B.A. and M.A. from Brigham Young University and his Ph.D. from Columbia University. After teaching at Franklin and Marshall College from 1989 to 1993, Patterson came to Brigham Young University, where his research and teaching activities focus on American politics, political parties, Congress and elections, public opinion, quantitative methods, and political theory.
He is Coinvestigator on the 2004 CSED projects monitoring soft money and issue advocacy in competitive federal elections and will also be directing the KBYU–Utah Colleges Exit Poll. He is the author of Political Parties and the Maintenance of Liberal Democracy (Columbia University Press 1996) and editor of Contemplating the People’s Branch: Legislative Dynamics in the Twenty-First Century. His research articles have appeared in Political Research Quarterly, Public Opinion Quarterly, Political Behavior, and other research journals in political science. He is a former Congressional Fellow with the American Political Science Association.
Patterson and his wife, Jeanene, live in Salt Lake City with their two children, Andrew and Kate.

Reviews

Contributors and affiliations
Lonna Rae Atkeson—University of New Mexico
Stephen Brooks—University of Akron
Michael John Burton—Ohio University
Nicholas J. Clark—Indiana University
Daniel Coffey—University of Akron
David B. Cohen—University of Akron
Robert J. Duffy—Colorado State University
William H. Flanigan—University of Minnesota
John C. Green—University of Akron
Anne C. Hanson—University of Akron
Marjorie Randon Hershey—Indiana University
Robin Kolodny—Temple University
Kyle Kreider—Wilkes University
Stephen Medvic—Franklin and Marshall College
Stephen T. Mockabee—University of Cincinnati
Kathryn Pearson—University of Minnesota
Kyle E. Saunders—Colorado State University
Daniel Shea—Allegheny College
Lorraine Tafoya—University of New Mexico
Craig Wilson—Montana State University-Billings
Nancy H. Zingale—University of St. Thomas