Evaluating Campaign Quality

Can the Electoral Process be Improved?

By L. Sandy Maisel, Brett M. Clifton, Darrell M. West

2007

First Published

171

Number of Pages

5H11M

Audio Length

Part of Series

Communication, Society and Politics book cover 1

Communication, Society and Politics

Series · 26 books

By Margaret Scammell, C. Edwin Baker, Michael Delli Carpini, and more

For a number of years, voters and academic observers have been dissatisfied with American campaigns. Contemporary races are seen as too negative, too superficial, and too unfair or misleading. Based on these complaints, a variety of reform organizations have targeted millions of dollars to improve the situation. This book seeks to evaluate whether these activities have improved the level of campaign discourse and conduct in U.S. House and Senate campaigns and argues that while individual reform efforts have achieved some of their stated objectives, the overall effect of these reform efforts has been disappointing. A different approach to campaign conduct and political discourse in American elections is clearly called for if improved campaigning is the goal.

Authors

L. Sandy Maisel

Author · 3 books

Louis Sandy Maisel L. Sandy Maisel is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Government and founding director of the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement at Colby College, where he has taught since 1971. He is the author or editor of 17 books including American Political Parties and Elections: A Very Short Introduction and Evaluating Campaign Quality: Can the Electoral Process Be Improved? From Obscurity to Oblivion: Running in the Congressional Primary chronicled Maisel’s unsuccessful bid for the Democratic nomination for Congress in Maine’s First Congressional District in 1978. His published articles have appeared in many political science journals and anthologies, including the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, and the Legislative Studies Quarterly. Maisel has served as president of the New England Political Science Association, twice a member of the Council of the American Political Science Association, and chair of the APSA’s research sections that focus on Political Organizations and Parties and on Legislative Studies. Maisel and his wife, Patrice Franko, who is professor of economics and international studies at Colby, live in Rome, ME. http://www.politico.com/arena/bio/san...