Maxwell School News and Commentary

“We made a simple letter directly for the property owner receiving it, from a person working for the city. The request, (needed) steps and personalized note were laid out to draw immediate attention,” describes Joseph Boskovski '14 M.P.A., a co-founder of the Maxwell X Lab.

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.

"The situation we're in at this particular moment—in the Supreme Court and the American political system more broadly—is a moment of extreme partisan polarization which has clearly infected our other political institutions and has made its way into the court," says Tom Keck, professor of political science and Sawyer Chair of Constitutional Law and Politics. 

Professor of Political Science Grant Reeher says in his experience, the incumbent or the candidate who expects to win wants to have a debate as close as possible to the Election Day and the challenger wants to have it earlier. 

According to Professor of Political Science Grant Reeher, the split primary doesn’t do much to help what generally dogs primary races, low voter turnout. "If you take that problem and you split the primary into two separate dates, you’ve compounded that problem even further, because you’ve asked people to come back and vote again, after they have voted in the federal primary," he says. 

"If...Dana Balter is hammering away at the idea that the 24th could play a role in flipping the House of Representatives, it may be harder for him [incumbent John Katko]," says Grant Reeher, professor of political science and director of the Campbell Public Affairs Institute. "But he comes in with a lot of advantages, particularly if we look back at past elections."

"We won’t really know the effect of the tax plan for several years when we have data that we can try to measure the effect of the tax plan separate from other factors going on in the economy at the same time," says Len Burman, Paul Volcker Chair in Behavioral Economics.

According to Grant Reeher, professor of political science and director of the Campbell Public Affairs Institute, "voting has become much more rigid" along party lines.

 According to Professor of Political Science Grant Reeher, progressives will have to sustain the movement to the midterm elections of 2018 if they want to enact fundamental change. "The question from here on in is how sustainable will this be," Reeher said. "What will this look like a year from now?"