Book Review: Campaigns on the Cutting Edge

Campaigns on the cutting edge, edited by Richard J Semiatin. Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2008

In my continuing effort to better understand the political process I watch for interesting books on the library’s new bookshelf. This was a very interesting title. The chapters were written by different people but they all flowed together well. It was a brisk read on the train over a week or so, with 206 pages of text.

The only real Pennsylvania note was a brief (2 page) case study on an ad used in Chris Carney’s 2006 congressional campaign. There are a few other mentions in passing, but that is the only long, substantive discussion of anything relating to the commonwealth.

This is a very current work, with discussions of the early primaries in the 2008 presidential race. The role of the Internet and bloggers are also discussed in depth. I found myself agreeing with many of the chapter authors’ views on the subject. Other topics covered are polling, voting methods and voter mobilization, campaign finance, the press, and political parties. I would highly recommend it.