18
candidates opposed by the state parties.
46
Often this assistance stems from the national party’s
national considerations, such as the balance of power in Congress, rather than from a strategy to
force state parties in a particular ideological direction, but sometimes it is intended to scare a
candidate back to a party line. States parties have been transformed from patronage
organizations into programmatic outposts of the national parties.
47
Contributing to the ideological pressure is the growth of interest groups that are
informally aligned with the parties but often much more ideologically extreme. One party
official argued that without the assistance of allied groups such as the Christian Coalition, the
National Federation of Independent Businesses, and the National Rifle Association, the
46
Bibby, Politics, Parties, and Elections in America, 75.
47
Sidney M. Milkis, The President and the Parties: The Transformation of the American Party System Since the
New Deal (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993): 266.
Figure 2. National Party Committee Soft Money
Transfers to State Party Committees, 1995-2000
(millions of dollars)
0
20
40
60
80
100
1995-1996
1997-1998
1999-2000
Election Cycle
M
i
l
l
i
o
n
s
o
f
D
o
l
l
a
r
s
NRSC
NRCC
RNC
DSCC
DCCC
DNC
Convention