… Despite high reelection rates, in recent years the incumbency advantage has declined sharply: by 50 percent or more in most estimates. … Two culprits seem to bear the blame in the case of the vanishing incumbency advantage (to play off the title of perhaps the most famous paper ever […] Read more »
Six Facts Lost in the IRS Scandal
In the furious fallout from the revelation that the IRS flagged applications from conservative nonprofits for extra review because of their political activity, some points about the big picture — and big donors — have fallen through the cracks. Consider this our Top 6 list of need-to-know facts on social […] Read more »
Four reasons it’s hard to campaign your way to the presidency
The narrative after the 2012 campaign was that President Obama’s victory was due to his superior campaign — better messaging, better technology, better organizing, better everything. But this narrative had a circular logic to it: Obama won because of his superior campaign, and we know that his campaign was superior […] Read more »
Why don’t Americans care more about campaign finance reform?
As campaign finance reform groups complain that President Obama hasn’t done enough to limit the flow of big money into politics, it’s worth asking, are Americans riled up about the issue? The answer: not really, even though they back strict limits on campaign contributions in overwhelming numbers. Here’s a look […] Read more »
In Political Campaigns, Do You Get What You Pay For?
Mark Hanna, the Republican Party political boss, famously declared at the outset of the McKinley-Bryan campaign of 1896: “There are two things that are important in politics. The first is money, and I can’t remember the second.” In the wake of the 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform act and the […] Read more »
Big Corporations Put Up Seed Funding for Republican Dark Money Group
Some of the nation’s biggest corporations donated more than a million dollars to launch a Republican nonprofit that went on to play a key role in recent political fights. Like the nonprofit groups that poured money into last year’s elections, the decade-old State Government Leadership Foundation has been able to […] Read more »