Maxwell School News

Democratic lawmakers, Professor of Political Science Grant Reeher says, "have already made pledges to constituents about what their agenda will be. Now it’s real. I think the governor is going to be put in the position of applying the brakes on some of these things." 

"All of this language about fake news and ‘you can’t trust the FBI,’ all of that is setting up a scenario where the Mueller investigation comes out and (Trump) says ‘it’s not to be believed’ and that Mueller is just working for the Democrats," says Shana Gadarian, professor of political science, in a WFAA article about President Trump's delegitimization of the Mueller probe.

Shana Gadarian defends negative political ads, "You actually learn more from negative ads than you do from positive ads because they do tend to focus more on policy and votes". A professor of political science, Gadarian was interviewed by WRVO.

According to Professor Emeritus William C. Banks, U.S. troops can’t detain, arrest or search anyone at the border. That’s a law enforcement function, and the military can’t perform those duties on U.S. soil unless there’s no other way to enforce the law. 

"Some people will make hay while the sun shines," says University Professor James Steinberg. "If people have an interest in doing business with Trump, they may want to do it now."

"If there was a year in which I'd be suspicious of polling numbers, this would be it,” Grant Reeher, professor of political science, tells CNY Central. "The reason is that the models of likely voters have to come from somewhere, and usually they use previous midterms. 2018 is nothing like 2014." 

"Is it [President Obama's memo] going to help a lot? I don’t think so, given the country is so polarized," says Grant Reeher, professor of political science and director of the Campbell Public Affairs Institute. "But it could help get people who would vote Democratic anyway to actually turn up."

Responding to immigration influxes has typically been the purview of the National Guard, such as Operation Jump Start from 2006-2008 under former President George W. Bush, says Professor Emeritus William C. Banks.

"One of the things we know about negative ads is they have more policy information than positive ads which tend to be more about the candidate's background," says Shana Gadarian, associate professor of political science.

The highly educated, richer professionals of the Democratic Party "are aware they are building barriers around who succeeds and who doesn’t," says Jeffrey Stonecash, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Political Science. "A lot of people disparage all of this, but a lot of white guilt is built around the fact that the world can be unfair."

"Clearly this is an expression of partisanship gone awry," says Corri Zoli, research assistant professor of political science, about recent suspicious packages sent to media and liberal leaders.

"It does look like it was not a terribly sophisticated campaign or attack," says Professor Emeritus William Banks about high profile democrats, public figures, and the CNN newsroom in New York receiving apparent explosive devices. "On the other hand, the packages did manage to get through the postal system without getting detected, so it is certainly a worrisome case."