No Place for Amateurs: How Political Consultants Are Reshaping American Democracy

""[T]he race for office has become a race for money""--in large part because of political consultants, says Johnson. He should know: he's a former top political consultant and now associate dean of George Washington University's Graduate School of Political Management. Johnson offers an insider's view of what political consultants do and what the repercussions are for the American democratic system. The consultant's role during a campaign is to leave as little as possible to chance. Consultants monitor public opinion via focus groups and tracking polls and spend hours digging up dirt on the opponent. In this new digital age, real-time campaigning is achievable with cutting-edge rapid-response advertising that can be prepared in advance and ready at a moment's notice to steal the spotlight from the competition. Johnson takes the reader through all the processes of spin doctoring by professional consultants--at times in overwhelming detail--but his main message is that the professionalization of campaigning has removed the average citizen from the electoral process. Johnson suggests such alienation is not inevitable, however, and he notes, albeit briefly, ways in which voters might once again be drawn into the process. He concludes that we can ameliorate the influence of professional political consultants, but his bottom line is that high-cost, high-powered political consultants are here to stay. (Feb.) Forecast: There is much historical narrative here that should interest the general reader. But overall, the degree of specificity in the discussion makes this title most apt for academic rather than general readers.