News Release

Michael P. McDonald, Expert on Campaigns and Politics, Joins Brookings

June 18, 2004

Michael P. McDonald, an expert on political campaigns and elections, has joined the Brookings Institution as a visiting fellow in the Governance Studies program.

While at Brookings, McDonald will focus primarily on voting behavior and legislative redistricting.

“We are delighted to have Professor McDonald join our staff for the rest of this election year,” said Pietro Nivola, who will become vice president and director of Governance Studies on July 1. “He will play an important role in our projects on congressional redistricting and political polarization, as well as in our broader work on the 2004 elections.”

McDonald is currently an assistant professor of government and politics at George Mason University. Previously, he worked on the campaign staff for state legislative campaigns in California and Virginia. He has worked for several national polling firms and as a redistricting consultant in Alaska, Arizona, California, Michigan, and New York.

McDonald has written extensively on voter turnout and redistricting. His findings have appeared in numerous journals, including American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, and Political Analysis. He is the co-author, with Micah Altman and Jeff Gill, of Numerical Issues in Statistical Computing for the Social Scientist. McDonald’s recent research shows that voter turnout is not declining but rather that the ineligible population is rising. His work on congressional redistricting explores how altering districts often results in uncompetitive elections.

From 1999-2000, McDonald was a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University. He taught courses in American politics with a focus on campaigns and elections at Vanderbilt University and University of Illinois, Springfield. McDonald received his Ph.D. in Political Science from University of California, San Diego, and a B.S. in Economics from California Institute of Technology.

In addition to McDonald, several political scholars at Brookings will be following the upcoming presidential and congressional elections. For biographical information on any of these scholars, visit the Brookings website.

Anthony Corrado
Campaign finance, elections

E.J. Dionne, Jr.

Community and civil society, elections, faith-based initiatives, ideology, journalism, politics,
public opinion, role of religion
in public life

Bill Frenzel
Budget/fiscal policy, Congress, election campaign law,
international financial institutions,
tax/trade policy

Stephen Hess
Elections, media, political campaigns/parties, presidency,
White House organization

Charles O. Jones
Congress, elections,
executive branch, political parties, politics, presidency

Thomas E. Mann
Budget politics, campaign finance, Congress, elections, media, political campaigns, parties, polling, presidency, reapportionment and redistricting

Kathryn Dunn Tenpas
Presidential campaigns and elections, reelection campaign from the White House perspective

About Brookings

The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. Our mission is to conduct in-depth, nonpartisan research to improve policy and governance at local, national, and global levels.