Browsing by Author "Marschall, Melissa"

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    How Citizens Form Perceptions of Political Pandering
    (2023-04-18) Zarate, Marques G; Hayes, Matthew; Marschall, Melissa
    How do citizens form perceptions of political pandering? People accuse politicians of pandering when they believe the politician is appealing to a group because they want their votes but do not intend on representing their interests. Although a relatively common accusation, there is very little systematic research that helps us understand how or why people come to these conclusions. In this dissertation project, I examine how voters use information about a politician, their background, and the type of appeal the politician makes to make inferences about the politician's motivation. Since voters cannot predict how a politician will act in the future or what their motive is at the time they make an appeal, voters use the information they have available to them to determine if a candidate genuinely wants to represent their interests. In the first empirical chapter, I argue that voters use information about a politician's past behavior to determine how the politician may act in the future. The second empirical chapter argues that the circumstances for how a candidate ended up competing in the election signals information about the candidate's motivation for running. In the last empirical chapter, I examine how the perceived quality of an appeal shape perceptions of pandering. These results suggest that voters leverage several forms of information to inform their opinion about whether a politician is pandering. By better understanding how perceptions of pandering are formed, we can identify strategies and tools that candidates and politicians can use to successfully convey their sincerity to potential voters.
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    Mayoral Elections in California: 1995-2014
    (Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2016) Marschall, Melissa; Lappie, John
    Political observers’ assumptions about local election trends are often based on anecdotes, incomplete observation or simply conventional wisdom. However, the Kinder Institute for Urban Research and its Center for Local Elections in American Politics offer a first-of-its-kind way to analyze elections. In California cities where mayoral elections coincide with the presidential elections, voter turnout is more than double that of cities where mayoral elections are conducted off cycle, LEAP found. This study confirms existing work on the relationship between the timing of elections and turnout but also sheds important new empirical light on the nature and magnitude of this relationship. Policymakers will find this analysis helpful when seeking ways to improve political participation and strengthen local democracy in America.
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    Mayoral Elections in Indiana: 2003-2015
    (Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2016) Marschall, Melissa; Lappie, John
    Political observers’ assumptions about local election trends are often based on anecdotes, incomplete observation or simply conventional wisdom. However, the Kinder Institute for Urban Research and its Center for Local Elections in American Politics (LEAP) offer a first-of-its-kind way to analyze elections. Several important trends emerge in Indiana. The analysis of election data reveals that more than 20 percent of all mayoral elections in Indiana cities go uncontested. The trend is especially pronounced in the state’s smallest cities. The report also shows that during the study period, there has been a steady decline in turnout in both primary and general elections.
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    Mayoral Elections in Kentucky: 2010-2014
    (Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2016) Marschall, Melissa; Lappie, John
    Political observers’ assumptions about local election trends are often based on anecdotes, incomplete observation or simply conventional wisdom. However, the Kinder Institute for Urban Research and its Center for Local Elections in American Politics offer a first-of-its-kind way to analyze elections. Mayoral elections in Kentucky, perhaps because they are held in Novembers of even-numbered years, tend to have respectable voter turnout rates. However, there is an alarming lack of competition in Kentucky mayoral elections; well over half of mayoral elections were uncontested between 2010 and 2014. Even when there is more than one candidate, mayoral elections tend not to be close. Kentucky policymakers would be well advised to take steps to rectify this situation.
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    The Process of Minority Incorporation in Local Politics and Government
    (Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2013) Marschall, Melissa; Mikulska, Anna
    Despite the fact that more than nine in ten black elected officials represent local rather than federal or state government, the study of minority representation in American local politics and elections has been a relatively unexplored area of inquiry. In this paper take an historical approach and examine the processes of black office-seeking and office-holding in local government. Our study relies on data compiled by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Research and the Southern Regional Council's Voter Education Project as well as Louisiana State Secretary of State election returns and candidate characteristics collected by the Local Elections in America Project (Marschall and Shah 2010). In the first set of analyses, we examine trends in the number and distribution of African American candidates and elected officials across office levels and types so that we can better understand: (1) where African -Americans have made the most progress, (2) what patterns might exist across offices, and (3) where we see little or no progress in black office-holding in Louisiana. From here we conduct a multivariate analysis to understand how the election of black council members in Louisiana occurred over time. Using event history analysis, we examine how municipal electoral arrangements and other institutional factors, as well as the socio-economic and racial context of cities shape the timing of the initial election of a black candidate for city council. This analysis spans the period immediately following passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, when the first African Americans won elected office since Reconstruction, up until 2010.
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    Who Runs for Mayor in America?
    (Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2017) Marschall, Melissa; Lappie, John; Williams, Luke
    Political observers’ assumptions about local election trends are often based on anecdotes, incomplete observation or simply conventional wisdom. However, the Kinder Institute for Urban Research and its Center for Local Elections in American Politics offer a first-of-its-kind way to analyze elections. In this report we examine data on municipal elections in six states — California, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota and Virginia — to investigate who runs for mayor and the characteristics of those contests. We focus on these states in part because they are states for which we have comprehensive data on mayoral elections over time, but also because they provide a good representation of the regional, demographic and institutional variation of cities in the United states.Several characteristics vary by state across the six states in our analysis: candidate competition, incumbency, and the prevalence of women and minority candidates among mayoral office seekers differ depending on state. Additionally, we find differences in degree of competition, gender, and race across city size and city type. These results provide an in-depth look at the details of mayoral elections across these states and provide the best insight to date about who runs for mayor in America.