News Sources: Super Tuesday

Voters in 24 states from coast to coast are making Feb. 5 a truly "Super Tuesday" for presidential aspirants. Some of the biggest prizes of the primary season -- California, New York, Illinois, New Jersey, Missouri and Georgia -- are up for grabs. More than four-fifths of the 2,025 delegates needed to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination and more than 1,000 of the 1,191 necessary delegates on the Republican side are at stake. Reporters looking for experts to interview on this topic can find them online at the collegenews.org database of news sources and subject matter experts from America's leading liberal arts colleges and universities, including the following (click on names for contact information):

Myron A. Levine - Professor of Political Science, Albion College - Levine is an internationally renowned expert on presidential elections (U.S. and abroad) and political strategies in the U.S. He regularly comments on current events and politics in newspapers, radio and television. A former Fulbright lecturer, he also is an expert on NATO expansion, political issues of American cities, national urban policies and volunteerism. Levine is the author of Presidential Campaigns and Elections and Urban Politics: Political Power in Metropolitan America.

Tari Renner - Professor and Chair of Political Science, Illinois Wesleyan University -Renner conducts research on public opinion polling, electoral behavior, election systems and urban political structures. He also directs Illinois Wesleyan's statewide political polling center. Renner is a former Director of Survey Research for the International City/County Management Association in Washington, D.C.

Raymond Seidelman - Professor of Political Science, Sarah Lawrence College - Seidelman is an expert on voting and non-voting in America, the politics of labor, political economy and the politics of suburbs. He has been a contributor to leading newspapers, magazines and journals and has appeared on NPR and been consultant to Rainbow (PUSH) Coalition.

Superdelegates Committing Super Early

About a fifth of all delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Denver this year will be "superdelegates" - party regulars and elected officials who are free of the influence of party primaries or caucuses. More than 300 of these delegates have already announced who they will support for the presidential nomination. But DePauw University journalism professor Ken Bode says such early commitments run counter to the intentions of party officials who created the superdelegate slots.

Undecided White Voters 'Flee' to White Candidates

Keith Reeves, political science professor at Swarthmore College, talks about the effects of race on politics in a recent issue of New Yorker. "The voting booth is tantamount to the confessional - it's the secrecy of the ballot that is the critical issue," says Reeves. "One thing we found that was surprising was when you have instances of a fairly large percentage of undecided white voters, they flee to the white candidate."

Clintons Have Little Room to Talk

You can't learn from your mistakes if you don't admit them, says DePauw communications professor Ken Bode. In that respect, he says, Hillary Clinton is altogether too much like George W. Bush -- she cannot and will not admit a mistake.

Viewers Want Better TV Political Coverage

Numerous polls show that the public wants a different kind of television election coverage - with increased focus on where candidates stand on issues and more coverage of lesser-known candidates. This is not likely to happen soon, says DePauw University communications professor Jeffrey McCall. That's because it's easier and cheaper to cover elections by discussing the latest poll numbers and celebrity supporters and by showing and analyzing Hillary Clinton’s teary eyes.

News Sources: Race, Gender and the Democrats

On a year when Democrats are buoyed by the prospect of retaking the White House, tensions are mounting in the white-hot race between the camp who want to elect the first woman president and the one that wants to elect the first black president. Can the wounds be healed or are the Democrats headed for a scorched-earth campaign between two constituencies that are core part of its base? Reporters looking for experts to interview on this topic can find them online at the collegenews.org database of news sources and subject matter experts from America's leading liberal arts colleges, including the following (click on names for contact information):

Alice Almond Shrock - Professor of History, Earlham College - Shrock has devoted years of research to the role and influences of women in America's political development. She has been resident scholar with the U.S. House and the British House of Commons. She is widely interviewed and has lent analysis to National Public Radio and Voice of America.

Marcus Pohlmann -Professor of Political Science, Rhodes College - Pohlmann is author of Racial Politics at the Crossroads and Black Politics in Conservative America.

Stephen Medvic - Assistant Professor of Government, Franklin & Marshall College -
Medvic has provided political analysis for numerous media outlets including CNN, The Washington Post and Fox News On-line. He is the co-editor of Shades of Gray: Perspectives on Campaign Ethics.

How Should Presidential Candidates Be Nominated?

While political pundits try to make sense of the votes in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, Allegheny College prepares to launch a national effort to reform the presidential nomination process. Meanwhile, a visit to the Iowa caucuses caused a skeptic from DePauw University to reassess his stance.

Point Guard Scores Political Coup

The the Sunnyside, Washington, City Council is about to dramatically change its composition, after a Whitman College student's research showed its at-large voting system kept Hispanic residents off the council. The studies by Ian Warner, a 2007 graduate who was a point guard on Whitman's basketball team, attracted the attention of the U.S. Justice Department.

News Sources: New Hampshire & Iowa Vote

The Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses and the Jan. 8 New Hampshire primary mark the start of a highly compressed presidential nomination process that some observers say could be wrapped up as early as February. But on the eve of these crucial contests, polls show the outcomes of the races in both parties and in both states appear to be anybody's guess. Reporters looking for experts to interview on this topic can find them online at the collegenews.org database of news sources and subject matter experts from America's leading liberal arts colleges, including the following (click on names for contact information):

Barbara Trish - Associate Professor of Political Science, Grinnell College - Since joining Grinnell, Trish has examined and researched the Iowa Caucus system as well as the "coordinated campaign" efforts in the Midwest. She has served as president of the Iowa Conference of Political Scientists (2000-2001) and is active in party and campaign politics.

Emmett H. Buell Jr. - Professor of Political Science, Denison University - An expert on the New Hampshire primaries, Buell is author of Nominating the President 1991 and wrote the "invisible primary" chapter in recent book, In Pursuit of the White House. He is the director of the Richard G. Lugar Program in Politics and Public Policy at Denison, Lugar's alma mater.

Douglas I. Hodgkin - Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Bates College - Hodgkin is a specialist in American government, political campaigns/elections, public-opinion polling, political action committees and elections. He and his students at New Hampshire-based Bates College conduct regular opinion polls on issues. He is active Republican with valuable insight into the evolution and current state of the Republican Party.

Oprah and Obama

Oprah Winfrey's coming to town for Senator Barack Obama, scheduling a three-state tour beginning Dec. 8. Ms. Winfrey, who has been fiercely protective of her extraordinary brand, is dipping into presidential politics for the first time with a visit to Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. Reporters looking for experts to interview on this topic, can find them online at the collegenews.org database of news sources and subject matter experts from America's leading liberal arts colleges, including the following (click on names for contact information):

Barbara Trish - Associate Professor of Political Science, Grinnell College - Since joining Grinnell, Trish has examined and researched the Iowa Caucus system as well as the "coordinated campaign" efforts in the Midwest. She has served as president of the Iowa Conference of Political Scientists (2000-2001) and is active in party and campaign politics.

Keith Reeves - Associate Professor, Swarthmore College - The Director of Swarthmore's Center for Social and Policy Studies, Reeves is an expert on the impact of racial politics on electoral behavior. He is the author of Voting Hopes or Fears?: White Voters, Black Candidates, and Racial Politics in America.

Ronald Lembo - Associate Professor of Sociology, Amherst College - Lembo teaches and writes about the sociology of mass media and mass culture, news and entertainment systems, media corporations. His newest book is Thinking Through Television: Viewing Practices and the Social Limits to Power.

Voter ID Law: A New "Poll Tax?"

A new Indiana law requires voters who can't show identification at the polls to use a provisional ballot and then travel to the the courthouse within the next 10 days to either show a valid ID or swear that they are either indigent or have a religious objection to being photographed. Swarthmore College political science professor Richard Valelly recently joined a group of leading scholars of race, class, and politics in America in signing an amicus brief submitted to the Supreme Court this week challenging the Indiana law, contending it amounts to a poll tax and a "democratic emergency."

'Poisonous' Air in Washington

The race for the White House is "wide open," but the atmosphere in Washington is "poisonous," the host of NBC's "Meet the Press" told Bucknell University students. Tim Russert said that, with 390 of the 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives deemed "safe" seats, "There is no incentive to reach across the aisle and try to achieve common good."