Raymond La Raja

My research interests include political parties, interest groups, elections, campaign finance, political participation, American state politics, public policy and political reform. I am co-founder and former co-editor of The Forum: A Journal of Applied Research in Contemporary Politics and I am a member of the Academic Advisory Board of the Campaign Finance Institute. My most recent book, with Brian Schaffner, is Campaign Finance and Political Polarization: When Purists Prevail (Univ. of MIchigan Press 2015), which was the winner of the Virginia Gray Best Book Award from the American Political Science Association's State Politics and Policy section. I am Associate Director of the UMass Poll, which conducts public opinion research in Massachusetts and the United States to inform policymaking.