The Speaker's Electoral Connection: Willie Brown and the California Assembly

By Richard A. Clucas

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0877723613
• ISBN13: 9780877723615
• Release Date: December 1994
• Publisher: Univ of California Inst of
• Length: 173 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 0.5" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

Great Contribution!

Legislative leaders now have as one of their principal jobs raising funds for their party's legislative candidates. None mastered the art of campaign finance like Willie Brown, the subject of Richard A. Clucas' ground breaking contribution to our knowledge of legislative leadership. Theoretically based, methodically analyzed, and cogently argued.

Solid scholarship

Professor Clucas's book is really the first scholarly look at the Assembly Speakership of Willie Brown, now the mayor of San Francisco. The book was published before the end of Brown's tenure as Speaker, but nonetheless is still highly valuable. Clucas's book builds a solid, well documented argument showing the link between Brown's power and his extraordinary ability to raise and dispense campaign contributions to his political allies and Assembly colleagues. The book contains considerable data that should be of interest to any serious observer of legislatures or politics in general. Clucas's writing, while not flashy, is clear and readable. I only downgrade the book because Brown's force of personality counted at least as much in his amassing power as his ability to run an election machine; Clucas did not address that element of Brown's power. Still, his book is a major contribution. -- James Richardson