John Sides

My colleague Paul Wahlbeck sent a letter to his senator, Tim Kaine, asking him to support National Science Foundation funding of political science research and to oppose the Coburn amendment.  This is Kaine’s reply: I’ve always thought of myself as an artist. [Cross-posted at The Monkey Cage]

Political scientist (and my co-author and friend) Zachary Elkins says yes in this New York Times op-ed: This constitutional uncertainty should suggest to both sides the possibility of agreeing on a formal clarification of the constitutional text. Zealots will scoff, but many reasonable people would find reassurance in a revised Second Amendment that was properly […]

I’m a judge in a new competition sponsored by ChallengePost that seeks new “apps to educate people about partisan gridlock and help empower them to do something about it.”  You can see more details at the link.  There is $5000 in prize money at stake. I’ve put the press release after the jump.  I’m quoted […]

[Originally posted at The Monkey Cage]

That is the subject of my latest post at Wonkblog.  It focuses on three claims that will be familiar to readers: Romney was supposed to lose the 2012, based on the underlying economic and political fundamentals. Romney was actually perceived as ideologically closer to the average voter than was Obama. Since Obama took office, public […]

As oral arguments get underway at the Supreme Court, here are a bunch of links to what we and other political scientists have written about gay marriage of late: An amicus curaie brief by 12 political scientists regarding Hollingsworth v. Perry.  They argue that gays and lesbians lack political power and this bears on the […]

A couple months ago, I noted some important differences among the population of gun owners. Gun owners who were not National Rifle Association members were more amenable to various forms of gun control than gun owners who were NRA members. A subsequent Pew poll confirmed this finding (pdf). In a forthcoming paper, political scientists Ryan […]

As it turns out, it’s not always about hitting a deer with your car.  Here is a guest post from political scientist Heather Evans. ***** Many members of Congress are on Twitter, and we can track, via a site like Tweet Congress, how often these members tweet and how many people follow them.  But what […]

The interview with Scott Prouty, the man who filmed Romney at the fundraiser featured in the “47% video,” has made the video’s role in the 2012 election newly salient.  Over at Salon, I have a piece detailing Lynn Vavreck’s and my findings about the video’s impact, which we will report in greater detail in The […]

Today at 5 pm, I’m participating in a South by Southwest panel entitled “How Partisan Media Contributes to Healthy Politics.”  I prefer to think of this as a question: can partisan media contribute to healthy politics?  For my contribution, I want to do two things.  The first is report on the available social science to […]