The work examines the legal challenge to the new Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act (BCRA) which is in federal court. Both sides have assembled expert reports and testimony from some of the US's best-known academic experts and political practitioners. These materials, filed with the court but difficult for the general public to access and evaluate, provide a window onto contemporary practices and disputes over party soft money and "issue advocacy". This work contains edited selections of reports filed by scholars and practitioners on both sides of the legal debate over the new campaign finance law. The editors provide an overview of the legal context and empirical issues central to the dispute, as well as roadmaps to each report. The volume does not try to assess the constitutional arguments made in the litigation. Instead, it makes available to the general public and scholars competing arguments and evidence on campaign finance law and practice.
Anthony Corrado is the Charles J. Dana Professor of Government at Colby College and a nonresident senior fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution. He is a coeditor of Campaign Finance Reform: A Sourcebook and coauthor of The New Campaign Finance Sourcebook, both published by Brookings. Thomas E.Mann is a senior fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, where he holds the W. Averell Harriman Chair. He is a frequent media commentator on American politics. Trevor Potter, a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, is general counsel of the Campaign Legal Center; a member of Caplin and Drysdale's Washington, D.C. office; and a nonresident senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution.
"I nside the Campaign Finance Battle is very highly recommended -and as is timely as it is a welcome addition to Political Science Studies reference collections and reading lists." - The Midwest Book Review |"This book provides a comprehensive source book for opinions -from academics, politicians and reform advocates -on the merits of campaign finance reform in the US." -Michael C. Munger, Duke University, Political Studies Review, 1/1/2004 |"If nothing else, lay readers of this book will come away with a clearer understanding of campaign finance, but political scientists, political practitioners, and lawyers will be its main beneficiaries." -William C. Loughan, Ohio Wesleyan University, Perspectives on Political Science, 1/1/2004 |"...the editors' balanced selection and refusal of commentary allows readers to evaluate the evidentiary record themselves guided only by the enduring themes around which the selections are organized.... Recommended." -T. Fackler, University of Texas at Austin, Choice, 12/1/2004
