The "con" in political consulting: why candidates spend billions on ads and experts of marginal value.

• Author: Drutman, Lee

Building a Business of Politics: The Rise of Political Consulting and the Transformation of American Democracy

by Adam Sheingate

Oxford University Press, 296 pp.

Let's face it. Even those of us who love politics are already a little weary of the 2016 campaign. We are more than half a year away from election day, and already hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on the endless stream of television ads blanketing the airwaves. The voters, we learn, are angry that they have no control over the process and are furious with the elites who do. Candidates spend endless, demeaning hours grubbing for the money they will need for TV advertising. And why? Because they are surrounded by consultants who tell them that they must. In the 2012 election, of the $6 billion spent, $3.6 billion went to campaign consultants. In all likelihood, 2016 will be the most expensive election on record, with most of the money going directly to the consultants. Ever-growing numbers of journalists now investigate and document the flow of money from big donors to candidates and their super PACs. But they may be missing the bigger story: that the campaign consulting industry has conned an entire class of donors and candidates into thinking that the way to win is to raise ever-increasing sums of money and spend it on ever-increasing amounts of ad buys.

The Johns Hopkins political science professor Adam Sheingate details this phenomenon in his fascinating new book, Building a Business of Politics. These days, pretty much every candidate who runs for office does so with a professional consultant. As Sheingate explains, they pretty much have to. Donors and party leaders don't take you seriously until you have a decent consultant. "Most of the key decisions in contemporary campaigns are now in the hand of consultants," writes Sheingate. "The definition of public problems, the framing of issues, and the formation of interest all rely on the services of a professional political class."

Sheingate traces the birth of political consultancy-ironically-to the Progressive Era, with its hopeful vision of a rational, transparent, information-based politics. "Publicity, many believed, would hold public officials accountable to the voters and help citizens form enlightened opinions about the issues of the day," he writes. It was supposed to break up "boss rule" and usher in a new era of open government. Theodore Roosevelt enthusiastically embraced public relations as "a tool of...