Why This Workshop?
For too long, scholarship on money in politics has narrowly focused on the marginal impact of additional dollars spent on high-profile campaigns. Much less attention has been paid to the myriad other ways in which individuals or groups with substantial resources might shape politics, including the ways money in politics might shape the agenda of public debate, the range of viable candidates and policy options, and help determine the outcomes of consequential political conflicts.
The workshop seeks to address this knowledge gap. To do so, Scholars Strategy Network along with the City University of New York's Graduate Center of Political Science and the Yale University Institute of Social and Policy Studies, with the support of the Ford Foundation and the Open Society Foundations will bring together a diverse group of leading scholars from across the country to present new research findings explicitly linked to the policy-oriented workshop themes. At the workshop, presenting scholars will engage with leading organizers and other civic leaders, brought to the workshop with the support of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. The practitioners will bring a pragmatic perspective to the discussion and together the scholars, organizers, and other civic leaders will begin developing a strategic new direction for scholarly research on the topic of money in U.S. politics.
Day 1 Host | Open Society Foundations
3:00-5:00 pm | June 16, 2016
224 W 57th St, New York, NY 10019
Day 2 Host | Ford Foundation
7:45 am-5:00 pm | June 17, 2016
320 E 43rd St, New York, NY 10017
Organizers:
Heath Brown, City University of New York, Graduate Center, Department of Political Science
Jacob Hacker, Institution for Social and Policy Studies at Yale University
Avi Green, Scholars Strategy Network
June 16 | Open Society Foundations
224 W 57th St, New York, NY 10019
3:00-3:30 pm | Opening Session
Jacob Hacker, Yale University
Sarah Knight, Program Officer at the Open Society Foundations
Laleh Ispahani, Director of the Democracy Fund, U.S. Program at the Open Society Foundations
3:30-5:00 pm | The $10 billion Election: New Approaches to the Study of Campaign Finance in the Post-Citizens United World
Chair: Michael Fortner, City University of New York
Erika Franklin Fowler, Wesleyan University:
Examining the Effect of Disclaimer Options on the Effectiveness of Group Advertising in Elections
Chisun Lee, Brennan Center for Justice:
Developing Empirical Evidence for Campaign Finance Cases
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, Stetson University College of Law:
What do Corporations Have to Hide? Glimpses of Dark Money
Adam Levine, Cornell University:
Does Rhetoric About Political Inequality Reduce Citizen Engagement
JUNE 17 | FORD FOUNDATION
320 E 43rd St, New York, NY 10017
7:45- 8:00 am | Arrival and Breakfast Served
8:00-9:10 am | Breakfast Discussion: Engaging the Public And Media
Avi Green, Scholars Strategy Network
Rakesh Rajani, Ford Foundation Director, Civic Engagement and Government
Elena Letona, Executive Director, Neighbor to Neighbor
Ben Chin, Political Engagement Director at Maine People's Alliance
Bill Allison, Bloomberg News
9:15-10:45 am | American Oligarchy? Donor Networks, Elite Influence on Public Policies and Priorities
Chair: Keesha Gaskins, Program Director of Democratic Practice-U.S. at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund
Eleanor Powell, University of Wisconsin-Madison:
Money and Internal Influence in Congress
Adam Bonica, Stanford University:
Professional Networks, Early Fundraising, and Electoral Success
Theda Skocpol, Harvard University:
When Wealthy Contributors Join Forces: New Research on Donor Consortia in U.S. Politics
11:00 am-12:30 pm | The New Face of Business: Lobbying, Philanthropy, and Corporate Organization at the State and National Levels
Chair: Mark Schmitt, Director of the Political Reform Program at New America
Alex Hertel-Fernandez, Harvard University:
Turning Americans into “Employee Voters”: Employer Mobilization as Corporate Political Power
K. Sabeel Rahman, Brooklyn Law School:
Policymaking as Power Building
Chris Witko, University of South Carolina:
The Power of Economic Interests and the Congressional Economic Policy Agenda
Respondent: Ruth Milkman, City University of New York
12:30-1:30 pm Lunch Discussion | The Political and Legal Landscape
Congressman John Sarbanes
1:30-2:45 pm | Broadening the Money and Politics Agenda: Race, Gender, and the Geographic Distribution of Advantage and Disadvantage
Chair: Ludovic Blain, Director of the Progressive Era Project
Tabatha Abu El-Haj, Drexel University:
The Political Value of Cash—Hard to Prove, Harder to Solve
Dara Strolovitch, Princeton University:
Michael Miller, Barnard College:
Buying In: Gender and Fundraising in Congressional Primary Elections
Brian Schaffner, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Financial Capacity and Strategic Investors in an Era of Deregulation
Respondent: Delvone Michael, Director of D.C. Working Families
3:00-4:15 pm | Evidence-Based Political Reform
Chair: Tam Doan, Research and Policy Director at Every Voice Center
Michael Malbin, Campaign Finance Institute:
Nick Carnes, Duke University:
Felicia Wong, President and CEO of the Roosevelt Institute:
“Overcharged”: The Economic Costs of Money-in-Politics
Respondent: Robert Peters, Director of Political Engagement with Reclaim Chicago
4:15-5:00 pm | Closing Session
Heath Brown, City University of New York
Amy Brown, Program Officer, Civic Engagement and Government at the Ford Foundation
Chairs:
Tam Doan, Research and Policy Director at Every Voice Center
Ludovic Blain, Director of the Progressive Era Project
Mark Schmitt, Director of the Political Reform Program at New America
Keesha Gaskins, Program Director of Democratic Practice-U.S. at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund
Michael Fortner, City University of New York