Campaign Dynamics: The Race for Governor. By Thomas M. Carsey. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2000. 232p. $49.50.

Abstract

Carsey presents a sound piece of research planted solidly in two fields: voting behavior and state politics. The primary thrust is testing a model of campaign strategy and voter reaction. Carsey takes advantage, as have many recently, of the steadily accumulating state campaign and exit polling data. Although not nearly as rich as the American National Election Survey (ANES) in content, these data provide reliable state samples and an abundance of cases in each state, which the ANES seldom does. We now often can use the states as true social science laboratories of democracy- expanding N without adding the confounding factors that plague across-time comparisons of national elections.