Influencing Congress: Big Tobacco's Pipe Dream?

Date
1999
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Producer
Director
Performer
Choreographer
Costume Designer
Music
Videographer
Lighting Designer
Set Designer
Crew Member
Funder
Rehearsal Director
Concert Coordinator
Advisor
Moderator
Panelist
Alternative Title
Department
Haverford College. Department of Political Science
Type
Thesis
Original Format
Running Time
File Format
Place of Publication
Date Span
Copyright Date
Award
The Herman M. Somers Prize in Political Science
Language
eng
Note
Table of Contents
Terms of Use
Rights Holder
Access Restrictions
Haverford users only
Tripod URL
Identifier
Abstract
With campaign finance spinning out of control, the American electorate has become increasingly suspicious of how much influence special interests can buy with lobbying and campaign contributions. At the same time, the tobacco industry has been trying to spend its way out of the political and legal logjam it has found itself in. Specifically, in 1997 and 1998 the industry spent an unprecedented amount of money trying to dictate the terms of the legislation that would be the final word on Big Tobacco's culpability and operating procedures in the future. The tobacco industry is not the first special interest that has sought to influence policy making in this way. Rather, contributions from political action committees have played a major role in elections and in legislative decisions. In light of past research on the influence of contributions on legislative decisions, this paper has statistically studied the relationship between the members of the House of Representatives and the tobacco PAC's that sought to buy their votes. The conclusion: contributions by Big Tobacco's political action committee were a significant and effective tool.
Description
Citation