Taming the Consultants

Via Steve Benen, it looks like the major Democratic presidential candidates are moving to start paying consultants in a rational manner rather than using a dumb percentage system that's frought with bad incentives and conflicts of interest. Of course, from the point of view of a citizen, this is really the least-bad aspect of the consultant racket on the Democratic side since on some level if politicians want to waste their money that's on them. But it highlights the extraordinary level of power that an entrenched and not-especially-successful circle of campaign consultants has inside the Democratic Party and if the money situation's turning around that may mean that out-of-control consultant power as a broader phenomenon is on the way out. For more on the general phenomenon see this from Amy Sullivan and my review of Bob Shrum's book.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2007/12/taming-the-consultants/47591/