The Roads to Congress 2010

"The American presidency spans more than two centuries, and 43 quite different men have occupied the office. It requires extraordinary breadth and depth of knowledge to deal meaningfully with such a vast subject. Philip Abbott, a distinguished scholar in several subjects, is well-equipped to do so as he demonstrates so clearly here."-Max J. Skidmore, University of Missouri "The editors have recruited a savvy group of authors who are highly knowledgeable of their congressional districts and states. They have produced a well written and important work that will serve the needs of students, political practitioners and the general public. If you want to know "what it takes" to run for Congress, read this book."-Anthony Joseph Eksterowicz, James Madison University "Sean Foreman and Robert Dewhirst's team of insightful scholars have carefully explored thirteen key House and Senate races to explain how the Republicans' 2010 midterm landslide changed the political landscape as well as why it did not produce even more change. Everyone interested in congressional elections, from Tea Partyers to Obama Democrats, should read this book."-James E. Campbell, University at Buffalo, SUNY "The Roads to Congress now are becoming well traveled. The second edition continues to give sound insights into congressional elections, with especially valuable microanalyses of key individual races."-Max J. Skidmore, University of Missouri-Kansas City

The 2010 Midterm Elections were momentous in the history of U.S. campaigns. Readers of this book will follow the path of seven House and six Senate races from inception to election postmortem. The chapters are both narrative and provide analysis of an array of interesting and diverse contests from throughout the country. Each entry was written by one or more experts living in the state or region of the race. The authors provide succinct and highly readable chapters meant to illustrate the distinctive nature of the campaigns they are examining. Readers will see individual campaigns and elections "up close" and be able to compare and contrast one from another because of the common format employed throughout the book. Taken together, the chapters reveal that the roads to Congress, while similar in so many ways, each follow a unique route to Capitol Hill.