University of Rochester’s Lynda Powell Wins Book Prize

Lynda Powell, professor of political science at the University of Rochester, has been chosen to receive the 2013 Richard F. Fenno Jr. Prize from the legislative studies section of the American Political Science Association. The prize was established in 1986 and is named for a leading scholar of American politics who also taught at the University of Rochester.

Professor Powell is being honored for her book, The Influence of Campaign Contributions in State Legislatures: The Effects of Institutions and Politics (University of Michigan Press, 2012). She will receive the award at the association’s annual convention in Chicago.

“What distinguishes Lynda’s book is that it has all the elements we value for the Fenno Prize,” says Lanny W. Martin, head of the selection committee and the Albert Thomas Associate Professor of Political Science at Rice University. “It deals with one of the most important, but largely unanswered, questions in contemporary legislative politics — the influence of campaign contributions on policymaking — and her findings have implications for how we can alter institutions to decrease that influence.”