No Place for Amateurs

No Place for Amateursis an an insider's tour through the fast-paced, often sordid world of the professional political campaign. A veteran campaign consultant himself, Dennis Johnson serves as the perfect guide through the world of fund-raising, push-polling, focus groups, and negative attacks that form the basis of high-stakes national campaigning. Cash is flowing into political races at a phenomenal rate, but why is every campaign so thirsty for funds? More polling, consultants, and TV time means more money. Major campaigns are now run almost entirely by professionals, and No Place for Amateurs details the skills, strategies and methods-and the extraordinary resources these require-to provide an expose of the highly sophisticated techniques used to reach and persuade voters. As this revealing volume makes clear, the more the candidates turn to sophisticated and unethical tactics, the less they focus on the concerns of the voters. Illuminating this dark underside of American politics, NoPlace for Amateurs offers fascinating, behind-the-scenes look at all the stages of the modern, highly professional campaign.

Dennis W. Johnson is the Associate Dean of the Graduate School of Public Management at George Washington University. He has over a decade's worth of experience consulting on congressional and gubernatorial campaigns