The Interest Group Connection

Paul S. Herrnson is director of the Center for American Politics and Citizenship and professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland. He is the author of Congressional Elections: Campaigning at Home and in Washington, 4th ed. (2004) and Party Campaigning in the 1980s (1988) and coauthor of The Financiers of Congressional Elections (2003). He is coeditor of several volumes, including War Stories from Capitol Hill (2003), Responsible Partisanship? The Evolution of American Political Parties Since 1950 (2003), Multiparty Politics in America, 2nd ed. (2002), and Playing Hardball: Campaigning for the U.S. Congress (2000). He has served as an American Political Science Association congressional fellow and has received several teaching awards, including an Excellence in Teaching Award from the University of Maryland.

Ronald G. Shaiko is visiting associate professor in the department of government at Dartmouth College. He is the author of Voices and Echoes for the Environment: Public Interest Representation in the 1990s and Beyond (1999). In addition, Shaiko has published widely in the areas of interest groups and lobbying, Congress, and nonpro?t organizations.


Clyde Wilcox is a professor of government at Georgetown University. He is the author or coauthor of several books, including Serious Money: Fundraising and Contributing in Presidential Nomination Campaigns (1995), Onward Christian Soldiers: The Christian Right in American Politics (1996), and Interest Groups in American Campaigns: The New Face of Electioneering (1999). His edited books include Women in Elected Of?ce: Past, Present, and Future (1998), The Politics of Gay Rights (2000), and Understanding Public Opinion, 2nd ed. (2002).