Election news from campuses on the campaign trail for October 14

Now that Canadian Thanksgiving is over, it's time to return to the U.S. with the election news from campuses on the campaign trail I included in Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Nobel Prizes 2014).  I begin with this press release from the University of Illinois at Chicago: First lady makes campaign stop at UIC by Gary Wisby on October 7, 2014.

First lady Michelle Obama made a political campaign stop at UIC Tuesday, receiving a standing ovation from audience members who remained on their feet throughout her 20-minute speech at the UIC Pavilion.

Her appearance was preceded by a lineup of Illinois Democrats, including Gov. Pat Quinn, Sen. Dick Durbin, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, Secretary of State Jesse White, Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon and Reps. Danny Davis, Jan Schakowsky and Robin Kelly.

Obama urged a robust voter turnout in the Nov. 4 Illinois elections. "Get the vote out. Start today," she said.

The First Lady stopped by Detroit three days later, as WXYZ reported in First Lady Michelle Obama visits Detroit for campaign rally.


I wouldn't be surprised if she said much the same things here as in Chicago.

That's not the only election news from Michigan.  The University of Michigan announced a Date change for the  U-M Board of Regents candidate forum on October 7, 2014.

DATE: 4 p.m. Friday, Oct. 24, 2014

EVENT: The candidates for Regent of the University of Michigan have been invited to participate in a 75-minute forum. Susan Smith, president of the League of Women Voters of Michigan, will moderate the discussion.

The four major-party candidates have confirmed their participation: Mike Behm, Rob Steele, Ronald Weiser and Regent Kathy White.

Candidate questions will be posed by the League and students at the Ford School of Public Policy. The format will allow for questions from the audience; it is not a debate.

If I were really ambitious, I'd drive out to Ann Arbor to cover the event.  Who knows, since I have a new car, I might just do so.

Follow over the jump for news from Colorado and Massachusetts.

Colorado State University: Governor’s race debate at CSU
by Mike Hooker
October 9, 2014

With less than a month to Election Day, the two top candidates vying for the Colorado governor’s seat squared off in a debate at Colorado State University. The debate took place Oct. 9 in the newly renovated theatre at CSU’s Lory Student Center and was televised live statewide on KUSA’s Channel 20.

The hour-long debate between Gov. John Hickenlooper and Republican challenger, former U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez, was co-hosted by KUSA/9News and the Fort Collins Coloradoan.

That's standard election news.  The University of Massachusetts promises something I consider more substantial for the long term in UMass Amherst Political Scientist Receives $457,000 NSF Grant for Multi-Year Election Panel Survey of 9,000 Citizens.

AMHERST, Mass. – Brian Schaffner, chair of the department of political science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and director of the UMass Poll, has been awarded a $456,878 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to create one of the largest multi-year election panel surveys ever produced. The project supports a pre- and post-election survey this November to track responses of 9,000 previously surveyed citizens.

“This project will provide a way for researchers to better understand how public opinion, political attitudes, and electoral behavior changes from one election to the next,” Schaffner says. “The size of the panel will allow researchers to measure opinion change within groups. This means tracking how views change among ethnic, economic or partisan groups or within regions of the country from election to election.”

“This panel provides new insights on a wide range of research questions,” explains Schaffner. “For example, how does the composition of the electorate change from midterm elections to presidential elections? What is the impact of redistricting on voter engagement? How does the electorate hold the government accountable for the economy? And what role do deployments or casualties play in affecting support for U.S. involvement in foreign conflicts? The answers to these questions will contribute to our understanding of how to sustain an informed and engaged citizenry.”

I'm all in favor of learning the answers to those questions.  They'd be very useful to anyone interested in electoral politics in a democracy, like me.