“Working Hand in Hand: Interest Groups and Cooperative Dynamics in Campaigns,” published in The Journal of Politics, examines how political candidates and party organizations actively shape and direct supposedly “independent” outside election spending.
Traditional political science models often depict interest groups as financial benefactors providing resources to candidates in implicit exchange for legislative influence. In contrast, Foy-Sutherland reveals a reverse cooperative dynamic, demonstrating how candidates and parties subsidize interest groups using a public communication strategy known as “redboxing.”
The journal Congress & the Presidency published Foy-Sutherland's article, “The Genesis of a Reform Effort: The Political and Institutional Origins of the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress.” It draws on more than two dozen interviews with lawmakers, staff, outside experts, and scholars to detail how specific political timing enabled this bipartisan initiative while institutional pressures restricted its scope.
The research illustrates that while institutional constraints remain strong, the partnership between internal political entrepreneurs and external reform advocates can successfully drive meaningful, incremental change.
Foy-Sutherland was also recently interviewed for an OpenSecrets article titled “Redboxing: The loophole that lets campaigns tell super PACS exactly what to do.”
“I think it’s more or less been embraced as a kind of necessary aspect of any kind of campaign arsenal,” Foy-Sutherland said. “Adding a red box to your campaign website is more or less a must in a competitive race.”
OpenSecrets is the nation's premier research group tracking money in U.S. politics and its effect on elections and public policy.
Posted October 26, 2026
