ANN ARBOR—The University of Michigan has several distinguished faculty members available for interviews to discuss elections in Michigan and nationwide.

They include:

Vincent Hutchings, associate professor, Center for Political Studies, His general interests include public opinion, elections, voting behavior and African American politics.

“The contest between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is shaping up to be interesting and even historic. However, commentators who anticipate that Obama will draw his support largely from African Americans, and that Clinton will generally rely on white female supporters may be in for a surprise,” he said. “Obama will probably not receive the lion’s share of support from black voters, and Clinton will probably do better than expected among male voters. This is because Obama isn’t really targeting African Americans in his platform or campaign strategy and, in any case, Clinton will not concede this constituency to him. Similarly, Clinton is making every effort to sound tough on foreign policy, thereby blunting a traditional criticism of female candidates.”

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Hutchings can be contacted at (734) 764-6591 or [email protected]

Ken Kollman, political science professor, is an expert on political parties and elections, and on lobbying. He has recently conducted research on American national elections and the history of American political parties, and on comparisons of the American electoral system to other systems around the world.

“The Republican presidential candidates, with the exception of (John) McCain, are competing to be the most authentic conservative on social issues, while the Democratic presidential candidates are competing to be the most palatable to the general electorate,” he said. “In my view, this indicates, not only that Republican primary voters in the early states are paying attention to social issues like guns and immigration, but that the Republicans, more so than the Democrats, fear a third party candidacy on the extreme that will drain votes away from their candidate.”

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Kollman can be reached at (734) 936-0062 or [email protected].

Arthur Lupia, political science professor and senior research scientist, Center for Political Studies, deals with questions regarding voting and elections, civic competence, parliamentary governance and the role of the media and the Internet in politics.

“The key to increasing voter competence is not telling voters about what you think is important, but talking to them about what they think is important,” he said.

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Lupia can be reached at (734) 647-7549 or [email protected]

Michael Traugott, professor of communication studies and senior research scientist, Center for Political Studies, is an authority on political communication, public opinion, media polling and campaign surveys.

“This will be the shortest primary schedule we’ve ever seen, and the longest period until we’ll know who the presidential nominees will be at the conventions,” he said. The national conventions for the Democratic and Republican parties will occur in late summer.

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Traugott can be reached at (734) 647-0421 or [email protected]

Watch and link to a video featuring U-M professor Arthur Lupia discussing voter competence (Quicktime)