Paul S. Herrnson – författare

Are American political parties on the way out? Political action committees (PACs) currently compete with parties for influence over candidates and voters; persuading a more independent and volatile electorate requires new tactics; technological innovations afford more sophisticated means to appeal for support. Many political observers express doubts about the ability of political parties to adapt to these changes and to survive, but Paul Herrnson instead suggests their survival and resurgence in this balanced assessment of party activities in congressional elections. Drawing on extensive interviews and survey data collected from nearly five hundred recent House and Senate candidates, campaign advisers, party officials, PAC executives, and journalists, Herrnson evaluates the roles of the national parties. He finds that from the perspective of party executives, they provide important campaign services and function as the key brokers between candidates, PACs, and other campaigners. For PAC officials, the national parties serve as important sources of strategic campaign information and cues for decision-making. For the candidates themselves, their parties function as appendages and accessories to their own campaign organizations. Herrnson provides rich detail on party development and party campaign activity to predict the future of congressional elections and of the party-in-government and the party-in-the-electorate. Political practitioners as well as scholars will welcome this fresh, new contribution to a significant political controversy.

Voting difficulties hung over America's presidential election in 2000 like a dark cloud. Hanging chads, a butterfly ballot, and the Supreme Court remain the most vivid memories of that political donnybrook. Passage of 2002's Help America Vote Act sparked further interest in the physical process of casting a ballot, yet several recent contests still produced confusion at the polls. A solution to at least some of those problems may be found in new technology, but such innovations carry their own concerns and questions. V oting Technology is the first book to investigate in a scientific and authoritative manner how voters respond to the new equipment. The authors—an interdisciplinary group of experts in American elections, political behavior, human-computer interaction, and human factors psychology—assess five commercially available voting systems, each one representing a specific class based on shared design principles, as well as a prototype system not currently available. They evaluate the systems against different criteria (including ease of use, speed, and accuracy) using field experiments, laboratory experiments, and expert reviews. The results reveal the good and bad about the new systems, including specific features that contribute to clarity, confusion, or error. Going beyond the concern with spoiled ballots, they determine whether voters actually cast their ballots for the candidates they intended to support. They address fundamental questions of whether voters like and trust the equipment and whether the various systems are equally usable by all voters. Their research also opens up an entirely new line of inquiry by asking about the interaction between ballot format and voter behavior. The concluding chapter pulls together best practices that will guide manufacturers of voting systems, ballot designers, election officials, political observers, and of course, voters. In a political system based on free exercise of personal choice, the least w

In the wake of Ross Perot, Ralph Nader, and other 'third' party and independent candidates that ran in the 1996 election, this collection of original essays by leading political scientists and third party officials is must reading for individuals interested in American politics. Multiparty Politics in America examines the roles that third parties have played in U.S. elections past and present and their prospects for the future. It presents unique and detailed coverage of the Reform, Green, and Libertarian parties' goals and campaign strategies; discusses the kinds of reforms that would help them become more viable; and advances the debate over whether the U.S. should have a two-party or multiparty system.

New scholarship for a new paradigm in interest groups politics… The 2010 campaign and election was pivotal: the Republican takeover of the House, the advent of "super PACs," and record-breaking sums spent on a midterm election. More than ever before, interest groups were able to mobilize new resources and new technologies in a shifting set of House and Senate races. This timely volume explores—in a series of lively case studies—a cross-section of groups, communities, and networks that vividly illustrates the "unleashing" of interest group activity in the electoral process in response to Citizens United and other court cases and events.

By 1990, there were over 4000 Political Action Committees (PACs) active and visible in the USA. This study covers various perspectives of PACs - size, contribution strategies, access to Washington information networks and issues - by means of diverse case studies.

By 1990, there were over 4000 Political Action Committees (PACs) active and visible in the USA. This study covers various perspectives of PACs - size, contribution strategies, access to Washington information networks and issues - by means of diverse case studies.

Campaigns are a critical part of the political process in the United States, but until now, reference sources on campaigns have only covered selected parts of the process or have been written for political insiders. The Guide to Political Campaigns in America is the first resource to examine and explain every aspect of campaigns in a manner that satisfies the needs of many different audiences. This unique and comprehensive volume explores history, issues, processes and people, and types of campaigns. Editor Paul Herrnson, a well-respected government and politics scholar who has worked on many campaigns himself, brings to the work a dynamic combination of high-level scholarship and hands-on experience that sets this guide apart from all other campaign resources.Readers will find information on every aspect of political campaigning in America, including: The evolution of political campaigns; The political and regulatory environment of campaigning, including suffrage and ballot access; The importance of the voters and what influences the vote; The key players in the campaign organization, including the candidate and various managers; Other players who interact with the campaign, including the media and political parties; Key strategies and tactics, such as polling and campaign financing; Specific types of campaigns, including the well known, such as the presidency, House, Senate, governorship, and key state and local races; as well campaigns for the judiciary and for initiatives and referenda; Campaign and election reform.The expansive coverage and distinctive approach of this resource will appeal to a wide variety of library patrons, including students, professors, teachers of AP high school courses, and professionals in the media and campaigning fields.