Michael Toner and Karen Trainer Co-Author Book Chapter on 2014 Campaign Spending and Upcoming Presidential Election

May 18, 2015

Washington, DC — In a chapter of a recently released book, Wiley Rein’s Michael E. Toner and colleague Karen E. Trainer analyze the role of the federal election laws on the record-breaking amount of spending seen in last year’s midterm election and what may lie ahead for the 2016 presidential election. 

The Surge: 2014’s Big GOP Win and What It Means for the Next Presidential Election, edited by renowned University of Virginia political analyst Larry J. Sabato, features a compilation of well-respected authors who provide in-depth insight into the 2014 midterm election and its implications for next year’s presidential race. Mr. Toner, co-chair of Wiley Rein’s Election Law & Government Ethics Practice, and Ms. Trainer, a senior reporting specialist for the Practice, analyze election spending in “The Money Game: Emerging Campaign Finance Trends and Their Impact on 2014 and Beyond.” 

Mr. Toner and Ms. Trainer conclude that the historic $4 billion spent on the 2014 midterm was in part due to a favorable regulatory landscape and theMcCutcheon v. FEC decision handed down last year by the Supreme Court of the United States. The McCutcheon decision allowed wealthy individuals to contribute record amounts of money to federal candidates and other federal political.

Furthermore, Mr. Toner and Ms. Trainer predict that Hillary Clinton, currently the presumptive Democratic frontrunner, could raise more than $1 billion for her presidential campaign committee for the 2016 race. The chapter concludes: “An open seat for president, strong top-tier candidates in both parties, a highly polarized electorate, and a deregulatory legal terrain all conspire to set the stage for the 2016 presidential race to be the most expensive in American history.”

An excerpt of the chapter can be accessed here.