Steve SPAM: Steve's Book Available for $8

[SluSignGuy]

Steve is spamming the message board...

Many of you know I am a political scientist who studies state legislative elections. Over the last ten years, I have written a book addressing the question: Do elections hold state legislators accountable for what they do? The book is then cleverly titled: Accountability in State Legislatures.

The book is about politics, but it is not about partisan politics (e.g., what you would see on MSNBC or Fox News). Instead, the book shows how nationalized our politics have become and how little accountability there is in state legislative elections. Over a third of incumbent legislators regularly do not face a challenger in either the primary or general election, and almost 90 percent of voters do not know who their state legislator is. Voters also do not appreciably reward or punish state legislators for their representation or state-level policy outcomes. The book provides the most comprehensive account of state legislative elections.

More about the book is available at http://www.stevenmrogers.com/book

The official release for the book is September 11th, but my publisher is having a sale until Monday on eBooks (75% off), so people can pre-order an eBook/ePub version for $8.

No one should feel obligated to buy the book. I actually will not receive any money for it (I am donating all proceeds to the Missouri Youth and Government Program). But I am simply promoting the book in every avenue I can, and I thought interested Billikens.com readers would appreciate a 75% discount.

To buy the book, use Promo Code EBOOK75 at https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo199643199.html

If you have questions about the book, happy to do my best to answer.

Note, I feel odd bringing this up this week because in the next two weeks, I will likely be starting a Billikens.com fundraiser (which is entirely separate from the book). But I thought those interested would rather buy the book for $8 than $33.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend,

Steve

[almaman]

get it in the city & county library they get lots of eyes, hopefully a few readers.

[JMM28]

Congrats. That’s an excellent topic as well. Look forward to reading. 

[willie]

1 hour ago, SluSignGuy said:

Steve is spamming the message board...

Many of you know I am a political scientist who studies state legislative elections. Over the last ten years, I have written a book addressing the question: Do elections hold state legislators accountable for what they do? The book is then cleverly titled: Accountability in State Legislative Elections.

The book is about politics, but it is not about partisan politics (e.g., what you would see on MSNBC or Fox News). Instead, the book shows how nationalized our politics have become and how little accountability there is in state legislative elections. Over a third of incumbent legislators regularly do not face a challenger in either the primary or general election, and almost 90 percent of voters do not know who their state legislator is. Voters also do not appreciably reward or punish state legislators for their representation or state-level policy outcomes. The book provides the most comprehensive account of state legislative elections.

More about the book is available at http://www.stevenmrogers.com/book

The official release for the book is September 11th, but my publisher is having a sale until Monday on eBooks (75% off), so people can pre-order an eBook/ePub version for $8.

No one should feel obligated to buy the book. I actually will not receive any money for it (I am donating all proceeds to the Missouri Youth and Government Program). But I am simply promoting the book in every avenue I can, and I thought interested Billikens.com readers would appreciate a 75% discount.

To buy the book, use Promo Code EBOOK75 at https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo199643199.html

If you have questions about the book, happy to do my best to answer.

Note, I feel odd bringing this up this week because in the next two weeks, I will likely be starting a Billikens.com fundraiser (which is entirely separate from the book). But I thought those interested would rather buy the book for $8 than $33.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend,

Steve

Serious question. How can a study of state legislatures be non partisan. Aren’t most or at least a large percentage of state legislators elected purely thru partisanship. Primary elections I see but generals? 

[SluSignGuy]

20 minutes ago, willie said:

Serious question. How can a study of state legislatures be non partisan. Aren’t most or at least a large percentage of state legislators elected purely thru partisanship. Primary elections I see but generals? 

Good Question.

When I said non-partisan, I more meant the book is less about Democrats are bad, Republicans are good (and vice versa).  Many times there is confusion about what "political science" books are about.  Partisanship actually is a huge part of the story to explain state legislative elections.  In brief, voters are increasingly voting their partisanship in state legislative elections (and likely less for what an individual state legislator actually does).

Additionally, I find that more extreme state legislators are more likely to win their primary election. I provide evidence that most state legislators (not all) have a great incentive to cater to their primary electorate rather than the general election electorate because districts are so safe and there is little chance of them losing their election.

[TheA_Bomb]

Good topic that I had not considered. I've been considering city councils and mayors more lately as Austin is having a lot of issues. There were a few grass roots movements to counter city council actions that kinda worked.

 

As a SLU trained political scientist my focus is international. So many don't realize the impact of city and state government. So good topic. 

[Billikenbooster]

When and where is the book signing?

[Lord Elrond]

Sounds like an interesting book. Just ordered one, keep up the good work

[SluSignGuy]

1 hour ago, Billikenbooster said:

When and where is the book signing?

Happy to sign at any Billiken home game. 

More seriously, I may reach out to Left Bank Books. 

[Soderball]

6 hours ago, SluSignGuy said:

Steve is spamming the message board...

Many of you know I am a political scientist who studies state legislative elections. Over the last ten years, I have written a book addressing the question: Do elections hold state legislators accountable for what they do? The book is then cleverly titled: Accountability in State Legislative Elections.

The book is about politics, but it is not about partisan politics (e.g., what you would see on MSNBC or Fox News). Instead, the book shows how nationalized our politics have become and how little accountability there is in state legislative elections. Over a third of incumbent legislators regularly do not face a challenger in either the primary or general election, and almost 90 percent of voters do not know who their state legislator is. Voters also do not appreciably reward or punish state legislators for their representation or state-level policy outcomes. The book provides the most comprehensive account of state legislative elections.

More about the book is available at http://www.stevenmrogers.com/book

The official release for the book is September 11th, but my publisher is having a sale until Monday on eBooks (75% off), so people can pre-order an eBook/ePub version for $8.

No one should feel obligated to buy the book. I actually will not receive any money for it (I am donating all proceeds to the Missouri Youth and Government Program). But I am simply promoting the book in every avenue I can, and I thought interested Billikens.com readers would appreciate a 75% discount.

To buy the book, use Promo Code EBOOK75 at https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo199643199.html

If you have questions about the book, happy to do my best to answer.

Note, I feel odd bringing this up this week because in the next two weeks, I will likely be starting a Billikens.com fundraiser (which is entirely separate from the book). But I thought those interested would rather buy the book for $8 than $33.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend,

Steve

Steve I work in state government and this pay a lot of attention to state elections.

It is truly incredible how little attention people pay to state legislators and instead just vote for whatever letter is behind their name. Nice to see some academic research into this. Probably gonna have to get this one signed.

[SluSignGuy]

34 minutes ago, Soderball said:

Steve I work in state government and this pay a lot of attention to state elections.

It is truly incredible how little attention people pay to state legislators and instead just vote for whatever letter is behind their name. Nice to see some academic research into this. Probably gonna have to get this one signed.

You will love Chapters 4 and 5.

• Only 11% of voters can recall their state legislator's name
• When asked if they could remember anything their state legislator has done for their district, 75% of voters said "no" or "don't know"
• When asked to describe what they liked or disliked about their state legislative candidates, over 1/3 of voters could not say anything about either the Republican or Democratic candidate.

[GMan Alum]

Great topic, Steve.  I've often talked about "robotic" voters who walk into a voting booth and have no idea what's on the ballot.  But...I'm old-fashioned so I bought a paperback copy of the book.  Can't wait to read it.  Good luck.  I hope it becomes required reading.

[SluSignGuy]

3 minutes ago, GMan Alum said:

Great topic, Steve.  I've often talked about "robotic" voters who walk into a voting booth and have no idea what's on the ballot.  But...I'm old-fashioned so I bought a paperback copy of the book.  Can't wait to read it.  Good luck.  I hope it becomes required reading.

Thanks for buying!

The book will likely reaffirm your point of view.  I admit I was a little glad when some other political scientists (who are good scholars but I disagree with them) used similar robotic language.. To explain, Caughey and Warshaw advocate that "balancing" (or just voting again the president's or governor's party in state leg elections) is a form of accountability.  I disagree...From page 16 of my book below...

Thanks again for buying.

 

[Old guy]

I fully agree with what you are saying Steve. For example, in MO we have to vote to elect judges. I assume most voters know absolutely nothing about these judges decisions, they either vote for no judges at all, or vote for them according to party affiliation (if available).

[Billiken Rich]

1 hour ago, Old guy said:

I fully agree with what you are saying Steve. For example, in MO we have to vote to elect judges. I assume most voters know absolutely nothing about these judges decisions, they either vote for no judges at all, or vote for them according to party affiliation (if available).

We vote to RETAIN judges.  To be blunt and perhaps to feed into Steve's point I still think who appointed the judge should be listed on the ballot.  It would save me some time.

[Billiken Rich]

21 hours ago, SluSignGuy said:

You will love Chapters 4 and 5.

• Only 11% of voters can recall their state legislator's name
• When asked if they could remember anything their state legislator has done for their district, 75% of voters said "no" or "don't know"
• When asked to describe what they liked or disliked about their state legislative candidates, over 1/3 of voters could not say anything about either the Republican or Democratic candidate.

So......What's your solution?  Please tell me it's not some horrific bastardization of democracy like ranked choice voting.   

[TheA_Bomb]

Got paper copy to display next to my book written by Timothy Lomperis PhD.

[SluSignGuy]

1 hour ago, Billiken Rich said:

So......What's your solution?  Please tell me it's not some horrific bastardization of democracy like ranked choice voting.   

Regrettably, I do not have a good (feasible) solution.  Ranked choice voting would likely make it worse by making voting even more difficult.

A key problem (in my judgment) is that the (federal) system is overly complicated.  Our system was not designed with our modern media environment in mind, and voters are asked to do too much.  I began to write an explanation of this, but I put my @Taj79 hat on and instead share thoughts from the book's conclusion below:

Given the burden on the voter, perhaps some ways to make things easier or simplify things are:

1. Increase media coverage of state government.  As I describe in the book, the number of reporters covering state government has dropped by over a third since the turn of the century. Now, more reporters cover the Superbowl than all state governments combined.  One way to achieve this is to limit the number of news outlets a single company can own.
2. More dramatically, perhaps get rid of state senates so voters only have to focus on one legislative chamber in states.
3. Also dramatically, switch to a more "party" based system at the state level where voters vote for a party rather than an individual state representative.  Voters then just need to know the party positions, which can be promoted more uniformly.

Do I expect any of the above to happen? Nope. Overall, I think that the system that we have makes it pretty hard for there to be meaningful accountability - without much easy fix.  But I hope someone comes up with something.

 

 

[Pistol]

I preordered a hard copy. Congrats on the accomplishment, Steve.

I'm glad it's actually about a subject I'm interested in, too. Most of my neighbors are professors and I usually just smile politely when they talk about their books.

[SluSignGuy]

1 hour ago, Pistol said:

I preordered a hard copy. Congrats on the accomplishment, Steve.

I'm glad it's actually about a subject I'm interested in, too. Most of my neighbors are professors and I usually just smile politely when they talk about their books.

Thanks, @Pistol.  A lot of academic books can be dry and earn that polite smile (and my book will have its moments), but something I consciously tried to do was write the book so it could reach non-academic audiences.  Don't skip the end notes. There are some jokes in there.  My favorite is in the chapter on Primaries.

[Deutschkind]

I've found it very hard to research my state and local politicians. I moved to NH two years ago and had to figure out who people were for the Nov 2022 election. There's so little info. Local newspapers are dead, etc. At least there are sometimes profiles from organizations like League of Women Voters, but those are the candidates responses to standardized questions, not an account of their record

[Deutschkind]

Has anyone else had issues with the promo code not going through?

[SluSignGuy]

2 hours ago, Deutschkind said:

I've found it very hard to research my state and local politicians. I moved to NH two years ago and had to figure out who people were for the Nov 2022 election. There's so little info. Local newspapers are dead, etc. At least there are sometimes profiles from organizations like League of Women Voters, but those are the candidates responses to standardized questions, not an account of their record

You are not alone in finding it hard to learn about your state legislative candidates. And you have it really hard in New Hampshire with so many state house members but media is likely dominated by the Boston media market. This is the subject of Chapter 4 in the book.  Pew has an excellent series of pieces that document how coverage of state government has declined over the last 20 - 30 years.

https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2022/04/05/total-number-of-u-s-statehouse-reporters-rises-but-fewer-are-on-the-beat-full-time/

Responding to your other post, the PROMO code was only good through Monday. There will likely be other sales throughout the year.  Thank you for your interest in the book.

[Deutschkind]

21 hours ago, SluSignGuy said:

You are not alone in finding it hard to learn about your state legislative candidates. And you have it really hard in New Hampshire with so many state house members but media is likely dominated by the Boston media market. This is the subject of Chapter 4 in the book.  Pew has an excellent series of pieces that document how coverage of state government has declined over the last 20 - 30 years.

https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2022/04/05/total-number-of-u-s-statehouse-reporters-rises-but-fewer-are-on-the-beat-full-time/

Responding to your other post, the PROMO code was only good through Monday. There will likely be other sales throughout the year.  Thank you for your interest in the book.

Thanks, that's what happens when I'm not on the board super regularly in the off-season

[thetorch]

On 8/6/2023 at 9:17 PM, SluSignGuy said:

Regrettably, I do not have a good (feasible) solution.  Ranked choice voting would likely make it worse by making voting even more difficult.

A key problem (in my judgment) is that the (federal) system is overly complicated.  Our system was not designed with our modern media environment in mind, and voters are asked to do too much.  I began to write an explanation of this, but I put my @Taj79 hat on and instead share thoughts from the book's conclusion below:

Given the burden on the voter, perhaps some ways to make things easier or simplify things are:

1. Increase media coverage of state government.  As I describe in the book, the number of reporters covering state government has dropped by over a third since the turn of the century. Now, more reporters cover the Superbowl than all state governments combined.  One way to achieve this is to limit the number of news outlets a single company can own.
2. More dramatically, perhaps get rid of state senates so voters only have to focus on one legislative chamber in states.
3. Also dramatically, switch to a more "party" based system at the state level where voters vote for a party rather than an individual state representative.  Voters then just need to know the party positions, which can be promoted more uniformly.

Do I expect any of the above to happen? Nope. Overall, I think that the system that we have makes it pretty hard for there to be meaningful accountability - without much easy fix.  But I hope someone comes up with something.

 

 

Steve thoughts on repealing the 17th Amendment.

Although hardly a cure all this would give state legislatures vastly more control over federal government and make local elections much more meaningful. Right now state legislatures are basically lobbyists begging the feds for money. This would reverse that, and with senate recalls would possibly give the average voter more power in their vote than direct election.