Study planned on special-interest impact in Senate race

UNLV political science professors are studying the U.S. Senate race in Nevada between Sen. Harry Reid and Rep. John Ensign to measure the impact of special interest groups.

The UNLV participation is part of a national study by several universities of highly competitive congressional races this fall in at least 15 states. The UNLV team will present its initial findings next March at the Western Political Science Association meeting in Seattle.

UNLV political science Professor Tim Fackler said Nevada is an ideal place for the study because it has a self-contained media market and is relatively isolated from the political influence of other regions.

"In some sense we're a nicely contained political laboratory," he said.

Fackler said that while the participation of special interest groups in political campaigns is common knowledge the impact on voters remains largely unknown.

"This is such a new area of social science," Fackler. "We don't have clear rules on how to measure impact."

Fellow Professor Ted Jelen noted that political parties and other special interest groups have been responsible for many of the television advertisements that encourage viewers to call either the Democratic Reid or the Republican Ensign. The ads generally advocate adversary positions and encourage viewers with the same feelings to vent their frustration at the particular candidate.

"There's been an awful lot of these ads this year," Jelen said. "My understanding is that these are all supported by soft money."

"Soft money" includes unlimited amounts of cash special interest groups give to political parties. The money is spent on party-building activities such as advertising and get-out-the-vote campaigns. But Jelen and Fackler conceded that tying the money from a special interest group to a specific party expenditure is tough to do.

"Obviously, we're interested in the labor unions and the gaming industry," Jelen said. "I'm also interested in religious groups such as Christians for Political Awareness."

The academic study is being funded by Pew Charitable Trusts.

"The fruits of this project should prove of wide interest, not only to scholarly audiences but to policy makers, candidates, campaign consultants, and journalists, as well as concerned citizens," Jelen said.

Other members of the UNLV team include political science professors Nathalie Frensley, Todd Kunioka and Michael Bowers.

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