Henrik Schatzinger, Aaron O’Halloran ’24 present at political science meeting

Henrik M. Schatzinger, professor of political science and interim director of the Center for Politics and the People, and Aaron O’Halloran ’24 of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, presented new research at the annual meeting of the Southern Political Science Association in January in St. Pete Beach, Florida.

Their presentation was titled “The Effects of Outside Money on City Council Elections in New York.”

“Citizens United has not only greatly affected the financing of campaigns for some federal and state offices, but is also increasingly shaking up local races around the country,” their abstract states. “However, research thus far has primarily focused on the effects of independent expenditures (IEs) on congressional races without paying a great deal of attention to local elections.”

In addressing this, the authors analyzed the popularity of different types of IE communication and the influence of IEs on city council races in New York City in the post-Citizens United era.

“Overall, our results indicate that outside money plays a critical role in New York’s primary elections with many open seat candidates, but that the motivation for groups to get involved in these races seems to be often based on long-term relationships and policy interests rather than trying to influence the outcome of specific races.”

(Photo: Aaron O’Halloran ’24, left, and Henrik Schatzinger)