Andrew Reeves

Political Disaster: Unilateral Powers, Electoral Incentives, and Presidential Disaster Declarations

I argue that presidents use unilateral powers for particularistic aims to gain electoral support. Specifically, I examine presidential disaster declarations, which allow presidents to unilaterally authorize potentially billions of dollars to specific constituencies. In an analysis extending from 1981 to 2004, I find that a state’s electoral competitiveness influences whether they receive a disaster declaration from the president. A highly competitive state can expect to receive twice as many presidential disaster declarations as an uncompetitive state. This relationship has existed since the passage of the 1988 Stafford Act, which expanded the disaster declaration powers of the president. Additionally, I find that these decisions have the intended electoral benefits—voters react and reward presidents for presidential disaster declarations. A president can expect over a one point increase in a statewide contest in return for a single presidential disaster declaration.

The Influence of Federal Spending on Presidential Elections

Do voters reward presidents for increased federal spending in their local constituencies? Previous research on the electoral consequences of federal spending has focused almost exclusively on Congress, mostly with null results. However, in a county- and individual-level study of presidential elections from 1988 to 2008, we present evidence that voters reward incumbent presidents (or their partys nominee) for increased federal spending in their communities. This relationship is stronger in battleground states. Furthermore, we show that federal grants are an electoral currency whose value depends on both the clarity of partisan responsibility for its provision and the characteristics of the recipients. Presidents enjoy increased support from spending in counties represented by co-partisan members of Congress. At the individual level, we also find that ideology conditions the response of constituents to spending; liberal and moderate voters reward presidents for federal spending at higher levels than conservatives. Our results suggest that, although voters may claim to favor deficit reduction, presidents who deliver such benefits are rewarded at the ballot box.

Turning Out the Base or Appealing to the Periphery? An Analysis of County-Level Candidate Appearances in the 2008 Presidential Campaign

We examine county-level campaign appearances by the Republican and Democratic tickets during the 2008 general election. Our analysis reveals that the McCain-Palin ticket campaigned in a way that was quite different from the Obama-Biden ticket. McCain-Palin pursued a “base” strategy that was focused on counties where Bush-Cheney performed well in 2004. They also stayed away from counties that showed vote swings from 2000 to 2004 or population growth. On the other hand, the performance of the Kerry-Edwards ticket in 2004 was a very weak predictor of where Obama-Biden campaigned in 2008. They pursued a “peripheral” strategy that targeted counties that had experienced significant population growth. Their efforts to target peripheral, rather than base constituencies, have significant implications for our understanding of presidential campaign strategy.

The Job Market's First Steps: Using Research Tools to Simplify the Process

Excitement about the political science job market builds around the time of the Labor Day Annual Meeting of the APSA, when schools start to post their openings for the next year. As we entered the job market, we found ourselves repeatedly collecting information about available positions as we prepared application materials. We monitored APSA’s eJobs website, cut and pasted relevant job information into a single spreadsheet, and assembled letters using that information. Here, we introduce free and open-source tools to automate these data collection and letter generation procedures using R and LaTeX. Our system minimizes manual data entry by extracting and creating a spreadsheet from APSA’s eJobs information. We walk applicants through the initial job search steps, including using eJobs, compiling position information, and producing attractive letters. As we entered the job market, we found ourselves spending hours collecting information about job openings and preparing applications to send to hiring committees. First, we repeatedly transferred information about dozens of jobs from the web to a single spreadsheet. This process involved line-by-line cutting and pasting for every position to which we applied (most of which were drawn from APSA’s eJobs). Second, we manually created customized letters that drew information from our spreadsheet. As users of LaTeX, a free and open-source platform for creating professionally typeset documents, we found no off-the-shelf mailmerge procedure in LaTeX that accepted a spreadsheet as an input.1 LaTeX is increasingly used by social scientists and taught to graduate students in political science programs because of its flexibility, quality, and affordability (it’s free!).We found ourselves wishing we could automate these processes to populate our jobs spreadsheet more quickly and then generate attractive mail-merged letters for potential employers. To save job-seekers time and effort, we here introduce muRL,2 a set of tools for collecting job information and preparing cover letters and mailing labels. These tools can be applied to any mailmerge task (e.g., letters of recommendation), and we provide guidance on special methods to simplify job searches in the field of political science. There are several benefits to our approach. We are able to automate the data entry of job information from APSA’s eJobs listings. Using R and LaTeX, we can create handsome documents and minimize the effort dedicated to word processing and formatting tasks, allowing applicants to focus on creating highquality content to send to hiring committees. Finally, by automating the creation of letters, we can help prevent small mistakes with potentially large consequences: no search committee member from University X wants to read a cover letter that touts an applicant as “a great match for the position at University Y”! The next section briefly sketches the job market process and the importance of the cover letter. We then detail the benefits of our approach and how it can be used in your own political science job search. Along the way, we introduce the eJobs interface to readers who may be unfamiliar with this tool. OVERVIEW OF THE JOB MARKET PROCESS The process of applying for an academic job follows predictable rhythms, and we advise applicants to review the work of other scholars that thoroughly details these patterns in political science (Carter and Scott 1998; Drezner 1998; Simien 2002). We provide a synopsis here, focusing on the creation of the application packet. Departments begin posting jobs through APSA’s eJobs listing service toward the end of the summer. Applications are generally due between early September and December, with most deadlines occurring in October and November. The eJobs listing is a primary source for U.S. academic jobs, although other sources may be consulted.3 After selecting a list of potential jobs, the applicant prepares a packet of materials that search committees will consult in making their decisions about which candidates to bring in for interviews and ultimately hire.4 The typical job market packet consists of a cover letter, a curriculum vitae, three letters of recommendation, and one or two writing samples. As Carter and Ryan T. Moore is an assistant professor of political science at Washington University in St. Louis. He is currently a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Scholar in Health Policy Research at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, San Francisco. He can be reached at rtm@wustl.edu. Andrew Reeves is an assistant professor of political science at Boston University. His research focuses on elections and political behavior. He can be reached at areeves@bu.edu. T h e P r o f e s s i o n ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. doi:10.1017/S1049096511000230 PS • April 2011 385 Scott have noted, “Without being overly ostentatious, the package should be attractive and effectively organized, and the most relevant and important information that you want to convey should jump out at the reader who just ‘skims’ the materials” (1998, 617). The applicant will assemble the packets and mail them to the institutions to which he or she is applying. The administrative task of mailing 10, 20, 50, or even hundreds of these documents can be daunting; muRL tames the process by automating several of the most time-intensive tasks.