Interest Groups in American Politics: Pressure and Power by Anthony Nownes

Author:Anthony Nownes [Nownes, Anthony]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: Political Science, General
ISBN: 9780415894258
Google: KMWUsVfYP48C
Goodreads: 14875032
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2012-09-24T00:00:00+00:00

many labor unions, for example, supporting arch-conservatives such as Speaker of the House John Boehner (R–Ohio) just because he’s a powerful incumbent. And few business PACs (except maybe Ben and Jerry’s PAC) are going to give socialist Senator Bernie Sanders (I–Vermont) a big wad of cash. Thus, while interest groups are likely to support incumbents and “power brokers,” they are not likely to support incumbents and power brokers who have a consistent record of bashing them.

What to do then, if the make-up of the government is not to your liking? Do you continue to buy access to government decision-makers who you know will never “come around to your way of thinking”? Some interest groups do. But others do not. One option for the interest group that is not happy with the current make-up of the government is to support candidates in open seat elections—elections that have no incumbent. The value of an open seat contribution is that it does not offend a powerful incumbent, yet allows an interest group to support a candidate who shares its political views. As you can see from Table 6.4, open seat contributions are a tad more common than contributions to challengers. Studies have shown that campaign contributions can significantly influence a non-incumbent’s chances of being elected. Thus, PAC contributions to candidates in open seat elections can have a large impact on election outcomes.57

Finally, there is some evidence that campaign money and/or help can buy interest groups effort. A campaign contribution may not change a government decision-maker’s overall point of view, but it may cause him/her to insert a short amendment into a large piece of legislation, push harder for a specific proposal than he/she otherwise might have, or “put in a good word” for a contributing interest group. These things do not represent huge changes in behavior. But in the end, they can mightily benefit an interest group.58

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