[1] He was also the founding director of the Campaign Finance Institute (CFI) in Washington DC from 1999 until he retired from that position in 2020.
During 1997–98, Malbin was a guest scholar at The Brookings Institution, where he finished The Day after Reform: Sobering Campaign Finance Lessons from the American States (co-authored by Thomas L.
)[1] From 1990 to 1998 he was director of the Center for Legislative and Political Studies at SUNY's Rockefeller Institute, where he was the principal investigator for Presidential-Congressional Relations for a collaborative, multi-university project funded by the National Science Foundation to create a congressional history database.
Earlier books include Limiting Legislative Terms (1992), Money and Politics in the United States (1984), Parties, Interest Groups, and Campaign Finance Laws (1980), Unelected Representatives: Congressional Staff and the Future of Representative Government (1980), and Religion and Politics: The Intentions of the Authors of the First Amendment (1978).
[2] Before government service, he was a resident fellow at The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (1977–86) and a reporter for National Journal (1973–77).