By Richard Winger The New York Times has published Professor Brendan Nyhan’s analysis of whether divisive presidential primary contests injure the eventual presidential nominee who survives the process. Nyhan finds that a competitive presidential primary campaign does not injure that party or its nominee. Read it here. Nyhan also rebuts the idea that contested primaries force Republican nominees “to the right” of where they would be otherwise. And his analysis links to research that shows open primaries do not necessarily produce more moderate nominees.
Also, on March 14, the San Diego Union-Tribune published an op-ed by political scientists Ethan Rarick …read more