UF experts available to comment on Florida presidential primary
With Florida once again poised to play key role in a presidential election, the following University of Florida experts are available to comment on the upcoming March 15 presidential primary:
Stephen C. Craig, professor, political science
Areas of expertise: public opinion, elections. Craig is director of UF’s Political Campaigning Program. His current research deals with attitude measurement, campaign effects, and other aspects of contemporary public opinion and political behavior in the United States.
Contact: sccraig@ufl.edu
Michael Martinez, professor, political science
Areas of expertise: electoral behavior, political participation. Martinez’s broad research interests include the relationships between partisanship, issue preferences and vote choice, as well as the causes and consequences of voter participation.
Contact: martinez@ufl.edu, 352-273-2363
Michael P. McDonald, associate professor, political science
Areas of expertise: voter turnout, election administration, polling. McDonald is a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. He has worked for the national exit poll organization, consulted to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, consulted to the Pew Center for the States, served on campaign staff for state legislative campaigns in California and Virginia, has worked for national polling firms, has been an expert witness for election lawsuits in Florida and Washington, and has worked as a redistricting consultant or expert witness in Alaska, Arizona, California, Georgia, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas and Virginia.
Contact: (cell) 703-772-1440
Daniel A. Smith, professor, political science
Areas of expertise: Voter file questions, early voting; absentee ballots. Smith has written extensively on the history of the adoption of direct democracy in the American states, the campaign financing of ballot measure campaigns, initiatives and referendums that have attempted to reform ethics and electoral systems in the American states, the popular support and fate of redistricting initiatives, the impact of anti-gay marriage measures on candidate elections (including the 2004 and 2008 elections), and the priming effects of initiatives raising the minimum wage. More broadly, he has published research on the effects of campaign financing and electoral processes in the states, and has written several articles examining the politics of redistricting and voting rights.
Contact: 352-273-2346, dasmith@ufl.edu