Sellers examines strategic communication campaigns in the U.S. Congress. He argues that these campaigns create cycles of spin: leaders create messages, rank-and-file legislators decide whether to promote those messages, journalists decide whether to cover the messages, and any coverage feeds back to influence the policy process.
The team of reporters from the Los Angeles Times uncovered large contributions to the Democratic party by influential Asian donors. Subsequent to the reportage, the Democrats returned nearly $1.2 million in donations and sparked a nationwide debate on campaign finance reform.
Drawing on both laboratory experiments and the real world of America’s presidential, gubernatorial, and congressional races, the authors show that negative advertising drives down voter turnout – in some cases dramatically – and that political consultants intentionally use ads for this very purpose.