Voters are not blindly cynical about money in politics

Recent years have seen growing concern over the role of money in politics, with many Americans seemingly believing that campaign money represents quid pro quo corruption. But in new research which uses survey experiments, Todd Donovan finds that people think about campaign money is based on both its source and the amount; Democrats and Republicans see donations to their own party as honest, and to the other, as dishonest. They also found that when money is seen to be spent on negative campaign ads, respondents were more likely to view it as corrupt compared to spending on ads in general.