The Last Hurrah?: Soft Money and Issue Advocacy in the
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Magleby, David B. / Monson, J. Quin, PUBLISHER: Brookings Institution Press, The midterm elections were noteworthy U.S. congressional campaigns for many reasons. They marked the last national contests before implementation of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) and thus were expected by many to be the last hurrah for soft money. These midterm campaigns provided a window on the activity of parties, interest groups, and political consultants on the eve of BCRA, as they prepared to enter a new era of American elections. The results of Campaign were remarkable. As the party in power, the Republicans defied history by gaining seats in both houses of Congress, giving them a majority in the Senate. To some degree this resulted from the GOPs new emphasis on ground war voter mobilization. Another key was the unusually aggressive support of the sitting president, who leveraged his popularity to advance his partys candidates for Congress. The Last Hurrah? analyzes the role of soft money and issue advocacy in the battle for Congress. Having been granted access to a number of campaign operations across a broad array of groups, David Magleby, Quin Monson, and their colleagues monitored and documented a number of competitive races, including the key South Dakota and Missouri Senate contests. Each case study breaks down the campaign communication in a particular race, including devices such as advertising, get-out-the-vote drives, soft money expenditures, and the increasingly influential role of the national parties on local races. They also discuss the overall trends of the midterm election of , paying particular attention to the impact of President Bush and his political operation in candidate recruitment, fundraising, and campaign visits. Magleby andMonson consider an important question typically overlooked. How do voters caught in the middle of a hotly contested race deal withand react toa barrage of television and radio ads, direct mail, unsolicited phone calls, and other campaign communications? They conclude with a look to the future, using the trends in to understand just how candidates, political parties, and interest groups might respond to the new campaign environment of BCRA.