UF brings political experts here to discuss 2010, 2012 elections

January 31, 2011

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Professors, strategists, writers and experts in the political field are gathering Friday at the Hilton University of Florida Conference Center to discuss the recent midterm election and their expectations for the 2012 races.

The UF graduate program in political campaigning is hosting “The Election Landscape 2010-2012: Reflections & Projections” with morning and afternoon sessions. The public is invited.

UF’s political science department holds this conference every other year in the wake of the presidential/midterm elections. The conference is split into two parts with two panels of experts.

The retrospective panel includes members of the press, pollsters and strategists, and academics who will discuss what happened during the 2010 midterm election.

The afternoon panel includes correspondents, consultants, strategists, and elected officials. They will talk about the future of campaigns and what they expect the 2012 elections to look like.

The conference starts at 8:30 a.m. with a continental breakfast. At 9:30 a.m. the retrospective on the 2010 election begins. The look ahead to the 2012 election starts at 1:15 p.m. and ends at 3:30 p.m.

Hosts
Stephen Craig is the chairman of the political science department and the founding director of the UF graduate program in political campaigning.
Daniel A. Smith is Professor of political science at UF and director of the political campaigning program.

Retrospective on 2010 Election panelists
Jim Kane (moderator) is the founder and chief pollster of the independent political research and survey organization, The Florida Voter. Kane teaches graduate-level seminars in survey research at UF.
David Beattie is president of Hamilton Campaigns, a political consulting firm providing strategic research to U.S. senators, members of Congress, governors, private companies and interest groups. His firm has locations in Fernandina Beach, Fla., and Washington, D.C.
Damien Filer is an award-winning political strategist, ballot-initiative expert and campaign veteran with more than a decade of experience crafting message and strategy for statewide campaigns in Florida and across the nation.
Jim Kitchens is an attitude and mass persuasion expert with a doctorate from UF in communications. He is the founder of The Kitchens Group, a leading public-opinion research firm in Maitland, Fla.
Susan A. MacManus is a distinguished professor of public administration and political science at the University of South Florida. MacManus is the co-editor of the University Press of Florida’s new series on Florida history and politics. For the last five election cycles, she has served as a political analyst for WFLA-TV (Tampa NBC affiliate).
Adam Smith has been the political editor for The St. Petersburg Times since 2001. He co-hosts “Political Connections” every Sunday on Bay News 9 and is the creator of the award-winning political blog, The Buzz.

Look Ahead to 2012 Election panelists
Roger Austin (moderator) is a Gainesville-based political consultant, who received his undergraduate, masters and law degrees from UF. He runs his own firm and has consulted candidates all over the state.
David Hill is the director of Hill Research Consultants, a public opinion and marketing research firm in Texas. Hill also consults with national advocacy groups and has polled for almost 30 successful initiatives for constitutional amendments in a half-dozen states.
Michael Martinez is professor and chairman in the Department Political Science at the University of Florida. His research on ambivalence, voter turnout, partisanship, voting behavior, and ideology has appeared in several scholarly journals, and he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in political behavior, research methods, and American Politics.
Beth Reinhard is the political correspondent for National Journal in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining National Journal in November, she was the political writer at The Miami Herald for 11 years.
Rod Smith is the newly elected chairman of the Florida Democratic Party. He is also a partner with the law firm, Avera and Smith. He was the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor in 2010.
David Wolfson is the president of OSI Research & Consulting in Tallahassee, Fla., a polling and general consultancy practice for Republican candidates. Over the last two cycles, Wolfson’s shop has won the last turnover seat in State Senate in 2006 and the top targeted Republican incumbent State House seat in 2008.