They’re far from irrelevant, but campaign financing laws have hurt their influence
By Alan Greenblatt | Governing
State parties matter less than they used to. They enjoy no monopoly on recruiting or training candidates. They face more restrictions when it comes to raising funds than super PACs and other outside groups do. Sometimes those groups can have more foot soldiers in place during a campaign than the parties themselves. And, at least in off years, many state parties barely even have anyone around to answer the phone. “State parties have become really a shadow of what they used to be,” says GOP consultant David Carney. “It’s kind of tragic.”
Related: Arizona ‘likely’ will go Republican in 2016/Governing
