For the Defense

In some respects, our work in McConnell v. FEC began years before the passage of McCain-Feingold. During 1996–1997 we served on a commission organized by Herbert Alexander to create a political scientists' view of campaign financing. The majority voted 6 to 3 to recommend removing limits on the amounts that parties could contribute to candidates. Our dissent, with Janet Box-Steffensmeier, asserted that such a move would do little to strengthen parties or make elections more competitive, while increasing the potential for donors to corrupt parties (Citizens' Research Foundation 1997). Shortly afterward, we were contacted by lawyers from the FEC looking for expert witnesses in Colorado Republican II to argue on behalf of congressional limits on parties' “coordinated expenditures” (Sorauf and Krasno 1997). A few years later, we were asked by lawyers from the office of Missouri's Attorney General to testify on behalf of that state's regulation of party finances (modeled on FECA) in Missouri Shrink PAC v. Lamb (Krasno and Sorauf 2000). In all of these cases our “testimony” consisted of lengthy reports written for district courts or panels

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• Parties and Leaders in the Postreform House

  David W Rohde•Parties and leaders in the…•1991

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• The Facts about Television Advertising and the McCain-Feingold Bill

  Open Access•Jonathan S Krasno, Jonathan Krasno et al.•PS Political Science & Politics•2002

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• The Effects of Canvassing, Telephone Calls, and Direct Mail on Voter Turnout

  Open Access•Alan S Gerber, Donald P Green•American Political Science Review•2000

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