[EL] Question for my next piece

[Schultz, David A.]

Lou:
I am forwarding your query to the election law listserv to see who on it
might be of help.  Good luck.

Can anyone help a journalist here?  Thanks.


On Mon, Mar 24, 2014 at 12:56 AM, Louis Jacobson <loujaco at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Just wondering whether you had any leads on something I'm looking at in my
> next piece.
>
> It's going to for State Legislatures magazine, about open primaries vs.
> closed primaries. Do you happen to know if anyone has studied how much
> having an open primary changes the outcome, either in turnout, electoral
> results, competitiveness or ideology/moderation of the winner?
>
> A key proposition would seem to be that open primaries tend to push
> moderation rather than ideological extremism, but I'm wondering if anyone's
> ever tested that.
>
> I'm open to crunching some numbers myself, if no one has done it already,
> If it comes to that, I'm wondering if you had any thoughts about how best
> to test this notion. Would you look at frequency of competitive races (I
> could use a combination of my own past handicapping of state legislatures
> and Charlie Cook's congressional handicapping), or would you look at
> frequency of actual party shifts in legislative control or congressional
> seats? I'm concerned that congressional seats could be subject to too many
> confounding factors, such as incumbents retirements retiring and thus
> making seats come open, or changes to the lines in redistricting.
>
> What about looking at something like National Journal's ideological
> ratings for lawmakers in open-primary states vs. closed-primary states?
>
> Open to all thoughts. Thanks!
>
> All best,
> Lou J.
>



-- 
David Schultz, Professor
Editor, Journal of Public Affairs Education (JPAE)
Hamline University
Department of Political Science
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FacultyRow SuperProfessor, 2012, 2013
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