Customer Reviews

Campaigns & Elections: Contemporary Case Studies

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It's very hard to find good, practical case studies of political campaigns written by people who know what they're doing. This book is superb, and an excellent source for people who want to find out the inside story of how candidates win tough elections.

This book is a collection of articles that appeared in various issues of Campaigns and Elections magazine. Sections divide the cases of elections for U.S. Senate, House, state/local races, and ballot initiatives.

Alone, the articles are each reasonably well executed. But don't go looking for connective tissue. This book completely lacks any structure for comparison. The "case studies" are not composed in similar formats. An unfamiliar reader will have trouble understanding when events took place -- dates have been left out -- entire articles exist without reference to years that elections took place.

Articles written by managers or consultants for one candidate reject any balanced discussion of their opponents' tactics.

These aren't flaws of the writers. They're flaws of the collection. The book's editors appear to have made no effort to revise old magazine content. Chapters don't even begin or end with extra unifying information.

Long story short: this is little more than a disjointed re-packaging.

This is a great collection of case studies about some of the best (and worst) recent campaigns. It is best suited for political professionals who can glean valuable knowledge from interviews of staff, consultants and candidates themselves. This is not a "how to" for the novice.

Of particular interest to me was seeing just how different some consultants from the "other" party think and operate. From this standpoint this book certainly does help one "know thine enemy".

The analysis is first rate, professional, not partisan. Additionally it is free from the bland generalizations and mindless axioms that one sees in many other books about politics and campaigns.