RIVERSIDE, Calif. — As campaign rhetoric heats up heading into the November elections, scholars at the University of California, Riverside are available to discuss issues from California’s initiative process and the impact of foreclosures on voting to immigration policy and the economy.
Voters, Initiatives, Corporate Influence
William Barndt, assistant professor of political science(951) 827-3361[email protected]http://politicalscience.ucr.edu/people/faculty/barndt/index.html
Barndt's research focuses on the intersection of democratic politics, development and inequality in Latin America. His current book project, “Democracy for Sale: Business Parties and the New Conservative Politics in the Americas,” includes a discussion about the growing opportunities available to corporations for participating directly in the U.S. electoral process. “Over the past quarter century, business-sponsored parties and party factions have won presidencies and nationally important governorships throughout much of the (Americas), including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, and Panama,” he writes, and “corporation-based political organizations may be emerging in the United States as well.”
Tags: political science, democracy, Latin America, U.S. electoral process, business and democracy
Shaun Bowler, professor of political science(951) 827-2443[email protected]http://politicalscience.ucr.edu/people/faculty/bowler/index.html
Bowler is an expert on voting behavior and California’s initiative process. He has written extensively on direct democracy, citizen influence on government, and third parties. He predicts that the campaigns for and against Proposition 37 — which would make California the first state in the country to require labeling of genetically altered food products – will be especially heated as many people are afraid of the term “genetically engineered” and farmers worry about lost sales.
Los Angeles Times: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-gmo-food-vote-20120720,0,2452357.storyU.S. News & World Report: http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/06/08/california-cigarette-tax-proposal-sunk-by-big-tobacco
Tags: political science, voting behavior, initiative process, direct democracy, third parties, elections, Proposition 37, politics
Ben Bishin, associate professor of political science(951) 827-4637[email protected]http://politicalscience.ucr.edu/people/faculty/bishin/index.html
Among Bishin’s research interests are Cuban-American voters and gay and lesbian politics. Recent research found that attitudes of Cuban Americans have undergone significant changes in the last 30 years, driven largely by an influx of immigrants since the Mariel Boatlift in 1980. But those changes are not reflected at the ballot box, nor are they likely to be soon. Cuban-American voters still overwhelmingly support Republican candidates, despite moderating views of U.S. bans on trade with and travel to Cuba. He also can speak on gay marriage and the political process, how different institutions tend to enhance gay rights while others impede them, and how democratic societies should balance majority rule and the rights to liberty and equality when fundamental rights are at stake.
Los Angeles Times: http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jan/26/news/la-pn-ron-paul-diplomatic-relations-with-cuba-at-florida-debate-20120126New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2012/01/21/us/AP-US-Romney-Hispanics.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all&ref=us
Tags: political science, Cuban-American voters, Cuban immigrants, GOP and Cuban-American voters, gay rights, gay marriage and political process, politics
Martin Johnson, associate professor of political science(951) 827-4612[email protected]http://www.politicalscience.ucr.edu/people/faculty/johnson/index.html
The Press-Enterprise: http://www.pe.com/local-news/riverside-county/riverside/riverside-headlines-index/20120302-riverside-lecture-to-address-impact-of-super-pacs.ece
Tags: political science, political behavior, public opinion, foreclosures and voting, politics, super PACs, campaign finance
Vanesa Estrada-Correa, assistant professor of sociology(951) 827-5851[email protected]http://sociology.ucr.edu/people/faculty/estrada/index.html
The Press-Enterprise: http://www.pe.com/local-news/local-news-headlines/20120731-study-many-young-adults-live-with-parents.eceThe Press-Enterprise: http://www.pe.com/local-news/local-news-headlines/20120418-inland-blacks-especially-hit-by-foreclosure-crisis.ece
Tags: sociology, race and housing, foreclosures and neighborhoods, foreclosures and voting
Among Johnson’s research interests are American political behavior, how social environments and other sources of information shape public opinion, and the impact of super PACs on American politics. Estrada-Correa’s current research focuses on aspects of racial stratification related to housing and neighborhoods, including neighborhood change resulting from foreclosures. The two recently published research linking foreclosures to diminished participation in the political process for voters who lost their homes as well as voters who remained in neighborhoods significantly affected by the housing crisis.
Immigration Policy, Asian-American Influence
Karthick Ramakrishnan, associate professor of political science(951) 827-5540(818) 305-4865 (cell)[email protected]www.karthick.com
Ramakrishnan has been researching immigration and public policy for 15 years. He is available to comment on the impact of Mitt Romney’s support for state immigration laws on his standing with Latino voters, who will play a significant role in battleground states such as Florida, Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico. Ramakrishnan also can comment on issues involving the Asian-American vote in some key states for the presidential and Senate races, including Virginia, Nevada and Florida. He also can comment generally on Asian-American policy priorities based on the only nationally representative survey of Asian-American voters done so far. He will lead a new survey of Asian Americans this summer, with results to be announced in mid-September. Ramakrishnan has received fellowships and grants from several national foundations, and has provided consultation to public officials at the federal and local levels.
Video: Analysis of the politicization of immigration http://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/arizonas-immigration-law-trialVideo: Asian Americans and politicshttp://ucrtoday.ucr.edu/3694
Tags: political science, immigration policy, immigrants, Asian-American voters, Asian Americans and civic engagement, Asian Americans and politics, politics, public policy
Edward T. Chang, professor and director of the Young Oak Kim Center for Korean American Studies(951) 827-1825[email protected]http://ethnicstudies.ucr.edu/people/faculty/chang/index.html
Chang is available to discuss Korean-American voters, whose political awakening in Southern California began with the 1992 Los Angeles riots. That event fundamentally changed how Korean Americans view themselves and their role in local politics and multiethnic, multiracial coalitions, Chang says. Prior to the riots, Korean Americans were unknown, invisible and unrecognized in American society. Afterward, Korean Americans became active in city politics and began to exert their political clout as they fought to gain visibility, accountability and representation in the city of Los Angeles.
Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB10001424052702303990604577370231727848006,00.html?mod=vocusNPR: http://www.npr.org/2012/04/27/151524921/how-koreatown-rose-from-the-ashes-of-l-a-riots
Tags: Korean Americans, Korean Americans and politics, Korean-American voters, Korean Americans and Los Angeles Riots, Sa-I-Gu
Economy
Mason Gaffney, professor of economics(951) 827-1574[email protected]http://economics.ucr.edu/gaffney.html
Gaffney is available to discuss issues related to taxation. In a recent paper, “Europe’s Fatal Affair with the Value-Added Tax,” Gaffney asserts that America depends less on a national sales tax than any other major nation; that global investors seeking the best combination of yield, security of principle and tax havens beat a pathway to U.S. Treasuries; and that candidates who propose that we emulate Europe should be rejected.
SmartMoney: http://www.smartmoney.com/invest/markets/10-things-economists-wont-tell-you-1314048901340/?mod=1122Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/sensible-tax-reform-2011-3
Tags: economics, taxation, land value, national sales tax, value-added tax, taxation policy
Todd Sorensen, assistant professor of economics(951) 827-6278[email protected]http://economics.ucr.edu/sorensen.html
Sorensen is a labor economist whose primary research areas are labor market frictions and immigration. Some of his research has examined how a localized increase in enforcement along the U.S.-Mexico border will affect the crossing decisions made by migrants, and has studied issues related to sentencing equity in the U.S. criminal justice system.
Hispanic Business: http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/2012/7/9/gap_between_hispanic_overall_inland_unemployment.htmThe Press-Enterprise: http://www.pe.com/local-news/topics/topics-immigration-headlines/20120613-region-a-third-of-inland-small-business-owners-are-immigrants.ece
Tags: economics, labor market, immigration and economics, immigration policy, sentencing equity
First Ladies, Women in American Political History
Catherine Allgor, professor of history(951) 827-1972[email protected]http://www.history.ucr.edu/People/Faculty/Allgor/index.html
Allgor is available to speak about the role of women in politics across a broad spectrum of American history, particularly in the formation of U.S. government, and the importance of the nation's first ladies. She is the author of "Parlor Politics: In Which the Ladies of Washington City Help Build a City and a Government" and a biography of Dolley Madison. "Successful first ladies run the unofficial machine of politics, the social sphere, where much business is accomplished," she says. In September Allgor was appointed by President Barack Obama to the board of trustees of the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation, which promotes the teaching of the Constitution by giving fellowships to secondary school educators to support earning master’s degrees in American history, American government, and social studies.
ABC News: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/betty-ford-handpicked-speakers-prepare-funeral/story?id=14054956&singlePage=true#.UCFo9KCDl8EUSA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20110113/jfkarchives13_st.art.htm
Tags: U.S. history, women in politics, women and American political history, Dolley Madison, first ladies
UC Riverside has a TV studio with a fiber-optic link to a satellite feed and an ISDN line at the campus radio station, KUCR-FM.
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