Contact: Stephen Diehl, Middlebury Public Affairs, 802-443-5629, scdiehl@middlebury.edu; Bertram Johnson, 802-443-5399, bnjohnso@middlebury.edu

MIDDLEBURY, Vt., Oct. 8 /Standard Newswire/ -- With the persistent Norman Hsu campaign financing scandal and a presidential campaign headed into high season, Middlebury College Assistant Professor of Political Science Bertram Johnson is available to provide expert comment on campaign finance and conditions that have already tainted the campaign frontrunners.

"In one way or another, the problems raised by the Hsu case will bedevil most of the candidates that are doing serious fundraising," says Johnson. "Hillary Rodham Clinton has received a lot of press, partly because of Hsu's uniquely odd felonious conduct, but also partly because it echoes the narrative from the 1996 scandals, in which fundraiser Charlie Trie and others funneled illegal foreign donations to Bill Clinton's presidential campaign."

At Middlebury College Johnson teaches a seminar on money and politics as well as courses on American politics and the media as a political institution. His research interests include campaign finance, interest groups and intergovernmental relations. Johnson is co-author of "The New American Democracy," which is now in its fifth edition, published in 2006 by Longman. He received his bachelor's degree from Carleton College and his doctorate from Harvard University. He joined the Middlebury College faculty in 2004.