AUTHORS UNCOVER POLITICS' DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS

	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., May 9 -- America's politics are the
cleanest they've ever been.  Right?
	Wrong, according to "Dirty Little Secrets: The Persistence
of Corruption in American Politics," a new book written by the
University of Virginia's nationally renowned political scientist,
Larry J. Sabato, and Wall Street Journal investigative reporter
Glenn R. Simpson.
	While the bad old days of back-room vote buying and
out-and-out bribery are mostly over, political business as usual
today is little better.
	Skewing a voter guide to favor politicians of one party over
another. Circumventing federal rules limiting campaign
contributions. Registering dead people to vote in tightly contested
elections. These are some of the dirty little secrets that power
brokers don't want the public to know.
	And that drives the authors to say in their introduction:
"The most fundamental and compelling issue on the national
need-to-do agenda is political reform .... [because] Americans have
lost faith in the system that sustains their democracy."
	Indeed, a recent poll showed that only 19 percent of
Americans trust the government in Washington to do the right thing,
compared with 76 percent in 1964.
	Sabato and Simpson show that the rise in cynicism and
disgust among the electorate has led to a drop in voter
participation, which in turn, leaves a relatively small number of
the voting public even more vulnerable to manipulation by a
calculating political elite. The outcome is a distortion of the
principles, expressed by Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and others,
on which this country was founded.
	The authors have conducted extensive research, using Freedom
of Information Act requests to secure thousands of pages of campaign
reports, and spent hundreds of hours in interviews with politicians,
consultants, campaign officials and others. Their findings show:
	¥ Newt Gingrich - "[P]erhaps the most brilliant political
tactician of his generation.... who rewrote the rules of modern
American political combat," and developed methodical plans for a
Republican assault on a complacent, Democratic Congress.
	¥ Christian Coalition - Organized as a social welfare
organization, rather than a campaign committee, the coalition
immediately became involved in political campaigns; however, the
Internal Revenue Service prohibits tax-exempt social welfare
organizations from engaging in politics as their primary activity.
	¥ Street Money - Democratic officials are paying
African-American community leaders around the country for their help
in getting minority voters to the polls.
	¥ Push-polling - A factor in political campaigns for years,
these so-called telephone polls are growing sleazier:  "Would you
still vote for [Candidate B] if you knew he was gay?"  (When in
fact, Candidate B wasn't gay.)
	The United States has an obligation to reform its political
system so that it will function as intended -- expressing the will
of a majority of the people -- and once again shine brightly 'round
the world as a beacon of democracy, the authors believe.
	Thus, instead of merely chronicling the country's widespread
political ills, the authors also have sketched out a road to
recovery and reform. They stress disclosure over prohibition,
believing it is better to set realistic goals and enforce them
fiercely than to set impossible standards and ignore abuses.
	Sabato and Simpson open a window on politics as usual,
letting fresh air and light into a dark and smoky room.
	"Dirty Little Secrets" is published by Random House's Times
Books (cloth, $25.00).
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May 8, 1996
	Larry Sabato can be reached for interviews at the office at
(804) 924-3604 or at home at (804) 977-3472.  Television reporters
should contact our TV News Office at (804) 924-7550.