Recently added articles from Campaigns & Elections:

The high price of low blows.(From the Editor ...)(Editorial)

Jun 01, 2008; Beaman, William ... If the public is so sick of negative campaigning, so ready to punish the mudslingers, then why are those tactics used again and again, election after election? Because they usually work. At least in the short run, a candidate can gain some advantage by calling his opponent's character into ...

Twenty years of stars.(From the Publisher ...)

Jun 01, 2008; Lieberman, Jordan ... Families have a way of making brutal observations seem so loving. My cousin, a high-profile magazine editor, recently described me as experienced in the "black arts" of campaigning. That was before I became publisher, of course. But it takes one to know one. And there's nobody better than ...

A Maverick strategy for McCain.(Briefing Room)(John McCain)

Jun 01, 2008; Daniels, Doug ... In 2000, then-Gov. George W. Bush marauded through West Virginia--a state that had historically voted for only three Republican presidential candidates--by defining A1 Gore as a radical, gun-stealing environmentalist determined to crush the coal mining industry. By the time the Gore ...

Waxing pathetic?(Briefing Room)(Madame Tussauds in Washington, D.C. entrance fee rates)(Brief article)

Jun 01, 2008; Capriccioso, Rob ... The market for pasty politicos just got more bearish. Just ask Madame Tussauds in Washington, D.C., which quickly learned that even President George W. Bush and former President Bill Clinton can't hold a candle (sorry) to the Hollywood celebs in its other wax museums across the world. ...

Viral madness!(Briefing Room)(presidential Internet video campaigns)(Brief article)

Jun 01, 2008; Capriccioso, Rob ... Presidential campaigns are spending more time than ever creating unique online videos, but research indicates they're doing little more than preaching to the choir. Nielsen Online found that few of the 518,000 who viewed videos on BarackObama.com were among the 351,000 checking out flicks ...

Whose money ... and where's it going?(Briefing Room)

Jun 01, 2008; Daniels, Doug ... Soon after George W. Bush's re-election in 2004, wealthy Democratic donors from across the country, dispirited and frustrated, scrambled to understand why their efforts to retake the White House had failed--and just how they could utilize their considerable means to help elect Democrats ...

When the McCain campaign went into freefall, Mark McKinnon faced an impossible challenge. Again.(Movers&Shakers)(John McCain)

Jun 01, 2008 ... Politics: Senator John McCain came back after he looked too broke to compete for the nomination. Are we learning something new about the power of money in campaigns? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] McKinnon: Yeah, I think we're learning there's just diminishing returns on ...

It takes a masochist to live my life.(If I Had It To Do Over ...)(Personal account)

Jun 01, 2008; Brabender, John ... For some strange reason almost every political consultant remembers their very first campaign in more vivid detail than any campaign they've worked on since or will ever work on again. I'm no exception. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] My baptism into the campaign world came ...

Spare us your authenticity.(Eve Fairbanks)

Jun 01, 2008; Fairbanks, Eve ... Remember Karl Rove, that reclusive genius of the Bush administration reputed to wield the power of Iago, Rasputin and Cardinal Richelieu rolled into one? Well, he's come out of hiding to set up shop as a Newsweek scribe and a Fox News commentator. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...

Is barack in a bind?; Why negative attacks work ... unless you're senator Obama.(Cover story)

Jun 01, 2008; Kornblut, Anne E. ... In a campaign that lasted forever, it was probably bound to wind up as it did one rainy weekend in late April. Sen. Barack Obama was visibly tired. He was, his advisers said, frustrated by the increasingly petty nature of the race. Questions about his associations with 1960s radicals and a ...

These innovators are taking microtargeting in startling new directions.(MicroWizards)

Jun 01, 2008; Findlay, Christie ... Alex Gage is a fidgety man. In the first five minutes visiting his office, you're likely to see him slide back in his chair, run his hands through his thinning red hair, flip randomly through his 2004 Florida research, and then lean forward to make his next point. All the while, a steady ...

Rising Stars; These are the young upstarts in your office that everybody loves to have. They have more energy; they have beter ideas; and they're too young for their own good. yep, their drive just ratchets up the presure on everybody else. But in your heart, you know they're going places. So do we. Behold, politics magazine's rising stars for 2008.

Jun 01, 2008 ... David All 29, Republican Before going to work on the Hill at age 24, David All never really considered himself a "tech guy." He had already served as a speechwriter for a U.S. senator and managed a Republican congressional campaign, but when he started work in the office of Rep ....

Florida.(Reds&Blues)(Brief article)

Jun 01, 2008; Reeh, Ryan ... DEMOCRATS SMELL BLOOD in the water down in Florida. Over the past two years, the party has managed to reverse its political misfortunes by nabbing nine new state House seats and picking up two congressional seats. And, for the first time, the number of Hispanic Democratic voters in the ...

Michigan.(Reds&Blues)(recall of Andy Dillon in the state government)(Brief article)

Jun 01, 2008; Reeh, Ryan ... A VERY NASTY recall election may be brewing for state House Speaker Andy Dillon, a moderate Democrat. The Michigan Taxpayers Alliance wants to recall Dillon for supporting tax increases during the state's 2007 budget crisis, and is trying to put the issue on the Aug. 5 primary ballot. "We ...

Missouri.(Reds&Blues)(Brief article)

Jun 01, 2008; Daniels, Doug ... MISSOURI REPUBLICANS WERE launched into disarray earlier this year when Gov. Matt Blunt (son of House Minority Whip Roy Blunt) shocked them with the announcement he would not seek a second term. The unpopular governor has suffered voter resentment over large Medicaid cuts he pushed through ...

Nevada.(Reds&Blues)(Brief article)

Jun 01, 2008; Reeh, Ryan ... AFTER A TUMULTUOUS year and a half in office, Nevada's Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons may have finally exhausted the patience of even some of his staunchest supporters. Gibbons, who is still enduring an ongoing FBI corruption probe, recently filed for divorce from his wife, Dawn Gibbons, in ...

Trials ahead for your candidate.(Ask The Campaign Doc)

Jun 01, 2008; Varoga, Craig ... Q: Maybe you can help. I work for a judge, a great guy, former trial lawyer, who's up for reelection in two years. What can we expect and is there anything we should be doing now to get ready for the campaign? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A: Judicial races have become ...

Rest the politics of revenge.(The High Road)

Jun 01, 2008; Wolpe, Rabbi David ... Q: Is it ethical to stay in a race you cannot win to damage your opponent? A: 'Cannot' is a parlous word. Mistakes and unforseen events can make the 'evident' winner an also-ran. It's difficult on prudential grounds to insist a candidate has no chance. Little chance, certainly; ...

Political Bookshelf.(The Pact: Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich, and the Rivalry That Defined a Generation)(Book review)

Jun 01, 2008; Marx, Claude R. ... Dual biographies are a tricky subgenre of nonfiction to pull off. Striking the right balance between offering straight biographical information and shedding light on the dynamics of the subjects' relationship requires both prodigious research and a great flare for storytelling. The ...

Alpha dogs: the Americans who turned political spin into a global business.(Quick Picks)(Brief article)(Book review)

Jun 01, 2008; Minard, Corinne ... Alpha Dogs is about the formation, high points and ultimate demise of Sawyer Miller, a public relations consulting firm that was one of the first professional political consulting firms in the 1970s and 1980s. Sawyer Miller helped create the modern negative ad, and saw "spin" as an ...