July 01, 2008

Get Out the Vote, 2nd ed. Reviewed in The American Prospect

Get Out the Vote, 2nd ed.

Get Out the Vote, 2nd ed., by Donald P. Green and Alan S. Gerber, receives a glowing review in the July/August issue of The American Prospect. You can view the article online here.

The first edition of Get Out the Vote! broke ground by introducing a new scientific approach to the challenge of voter mobilization and profoundly influenced how campaigns operate. In this expanded and updated edition, the authors incorporate data from more than one hundred new studies, which shed new light on the cost-effectiveness and efficiency of various campaign tactics, including door-to-door canvassing, e-mail, direct mail, and telephone calls. Two new chapters focus on the effectiveness of mass media campaigns and events such as candidate forums and Election Day festivals. Available in time for the core of the 2008 presidential campaign, this practical guide on voter mobilization is sure to be an important resource for consultants, candidates, and grassroots organizations.

- Read Harold Meyerson's review, "Make it Personal: Two political scientists challenge the conventional wisdom about voter turnout," in The American Prospect.

- Learn more about Get Out the Vote, 2nd ed.

May 15, 2008

Early Buzz for a Workbook for the New President

What Do We Do Now? Will offer advice on everything from selecting a cabinet to picking a desk for the Oval Office

Stephen Hess Psst…check out this “Washington Whisper” from the latest U.S. News & World Report. The post is titled “A Beginner’s Guide Clinton Really Needed” and it comes complete with a cartoon of Bill Clinton wearing a dunce cap. The piece is on a forthcoming Brookings Institution Press book by Stephen Hess, a presidential expert here at Brookings. What Do We Do Now? A Workbook for the President-Elect will be available in October, just in time for an election week publication.

- Check out the "Washington Whisper" column featuring What Do We Do Now?

January 17, 2008

Front-loading and the Presidential Primaries

The compression and hastening of the nomination season are changing the nature of the presidential selection process

The Front-Loading Problem in Presidential Nominations The race for the White House may seem like a marathon, but the nomination process is becoming a sprint, with the starting gun fired earlier each time. Where state primaries and caucuses were once spread out over a period of three or four months, most are now crammed into a four—or five—week interval at the very beginning of the delegate selection calendar. Despite the importance of this issue in American politics, however, too little systematic analysis has been done on the topic. The Front-Loading Problem in Presidential Nominations, by William G. Mayer and Andrew E. Busch, offers a comprehensive examination of the front-loading problem in all its facets.

- Check out the Democratic primary schedule.

- Check out the Republican primary schedule.

- Recent and forthcoming Brookings books on campaigns and elections:

July 20, 2007

Debating the Future of Campaign Finance Reform

Mann and Smith hold week-long discussion on latimes.com

Thomas E. Mann Brookings senior fellow Thomas E. Mann and former FEC Commissioner Bradley Smith recently concluded a five-part “Dust-Up” debate on the future of campaign finance reform. Co-author of both The New Campaign Finance Sourcebook (Brookings, 2005) and The Broken Branch (Oxford, 2006), Mann is no stranger to the “tension between political speech and campaign finance regulation.” Ultimately Smith, author of Unfree Speech: The Folly of Campaign Finance Reform (Princeton University Press, 2001), and Mann agreed to disagree; Mann favors regulation while Smith believes deregulation will not adversely affect electoral competition.

- Read “Dust-Up: Campaign finance reloaded” on latimes.com.

- Read “Dust-Up: Did WRTL KO BCRA?” on latimes.com.

- Read “Dust-Up: Smarter ways to fix the system?” on latimes.com.

- Read “Dust-Up: Match candidates' scratch” on latimes.com.

- Read “Dust-Up: Cash or charged?” on latimes.com.

- Learn more about The New Campaign Finance Sourcebook.

- Of related interest: Inside the Campaign Finance Battle, Anthony Corrado, Thomas E. Mann, Trevor Potter, eds. (Brookings, 2003).

- Of related interest: Financing the 2004 Election, David B. Magleby, Anthony Corrado, and Kelly D. Patterson, eds. (Brookings, 2006).

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