The Race to 270: The Electoral College and the Campaign
Strategies of 2000 and 2004. By Daron R. Shaw. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 2006. 216p. $50.00 cloth, $20.00
paper.
Part political memoir, part political science, this is a valuable
book on presidential elections that should be read by consultants
and academics alike. Drawing on his experience as a Bush strategist
and a political science professor at the University of Texas, Daron
Shaw argues that these two audiences could learn a great deal about
what interests them by paying more careful attention to each other.
This theme is woven throughout Shaw's consideration of Electoral
College strategies, execution of those strategies, and their effect
on American electorates. Though he has clear political predilections
that may make Democratic readers occasionally bristle, his rigorous
examination of the best data on presidential
campaigns available to date keeps him squarely in the
realm of political science. The end result is a book that provides
irreplaceable insight on how campaigns might better function, on the
subjects that political scientists could do a better job of
exploring, and on the potential future of elections research.