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Tatishe Nteta, Provost Professor of Political Science and Director of UMass Poll is quoted in an article about the relationship between Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and newly-elected Mass. Governor Maura Healey, who have disagreed on policy issues. Nteta says, “A number of progressives and Democrats assume that Maura Healey is going to be a progressive governor, [but her agenda] doesn’t sound like a progressive one to me.” (The Boston Globe, 11/19/22) 

Ray La Raja, Professor of Political Science, is quoted in an article about a potentially crowded field of candidates for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. La Raja says, ”Having a big field is a double-edged sword. First of all, it does indicate that people think [Trump’s] vulnerable, but then they're going to divide their vote and Trump has a base vote that he's locked into.” (WTOV, 11/21/22)

Paul Collins, Professor of Legal Studies and Political Science, says it’s unlikely U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett will recuse herself from an upcoming LGBTQ+ rights case because of her former role on the board of of Christian private schools that reportedly barred admission to children of same-sex parents. Collins says, “The allegations of a conflict are too broad to be meaningful and could apply to membership in a wide array of religious organizations that would effectively preclude many justices from ever hearing cases about any issues that remotely involve religion.” (Newsweek, 11/22/22)

Ray La Raja, Professor of Political Science, says spending in political races does not necessarily lead to success. In competitive races where both sides raise a lot of money, he says, "It just doesn't make that much of a difference after a while.” (Newsweek, 11/14/22)

Charli Carpenter, Professor of Political Science and Director of Human Security Lab, and Hunter Fairchild, undergraduate research fellow and senior political science major, write that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s policy that restricts most men ages 18 to 60 from leaving the country could damage morale in the country’s war with Russia. She says research she conducted with the Human Security Lab at UMass Amherst found most Ukrainians oppose the ban. (Foreign Policy, 11/14/22) 

An article reporting that Gov. Charlie Baker will appoint an interim MBTA leader before leaving office in January cites a UMass/WCVB poll that found riders blame the current leader for problems with the public transportation system. (Boston.com, 11/14/22; News Office release)

On the television news program Basic Black, Tatishe Nteta, Provost Professor of Political Science and Director of the UMass Poll, discusses take-aways from last week’s midterm elections. Nteta says, “The Democratic party effectively spoke to issues like the health of the democracy and mobilized individuals to vote based on these fears and concerns.” (GBH, 11/11/22)

 

UMass Poll researchers Tatishe Nteta, Adam Eichen, Maddi Hertz, Ray La Raja, Jesse Rhodes and Alexander Theodoridis write that their research found antigay attitudes did not influence Massachusetts voters’ election of Maura Healey as the nation’s first openly lesbian elected governor and that sexism may hurt candidates more, at least in Massachusetts. (The Washington Post, 11/15/22)

Former graduate student Kira Tait has just published an article (co-authored with Whitney Taylor) in Law & Social Inquiry, one of the top journals in the Law and Society field. The article, entitled "The Possibility of Rights Claims-Making in Court: Looking Back on Twenty-Five Years of Social Rights Constitutionalism in South Africa" is based on her dissertation research. You can congratulate Kira at ktait@sandiego.edu!

Amel Ahmed, Associate Professor of Political Science, has a new article on The Conversation about the often-overlooked work of local election administrators. As Ahmed writes, election officials are usually overworked, underpaid, and feeling pressure from multiple sources, especially in small, undersupported jurisdictions. Ahmed also commented on NPR and in The Times in advance of the midterm election. She told NPR, “The fate of democracy really hinges on whether or not losers accept defeat and whether they recognize losses as losses.” Ahmed adds, “I believe the focus on the machinery of elections has obscured a different threat to the nation’s elections: Local election administrators work under increasingly difficult circumstances, with dwindling resources and mounting challenges.” (The ConversationTimes-UnionWBTWMilwaukee IndependentStudyFindsNPRThe Times 11/07/2022)

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