Office of Undergraduate Research

Campaigns and Candidates in Mayoral Elections

This project focuses on the impact of candidate characteristics (race, sex, political experience) and campaign expenditures on election outcomes and voter turnout in urban mayoral elections. Data are gathered on key variables from recent elections in the 125 largest U.S. cities. For very recent elections these data are fairly easy to access. However, for elections that took place 5-10 years ago the data gathering process requires much more time and effort.

Tasks and responsibilities:

The student will work with the faculty supervisor and one graduate student and will find data sources and endcode the data in an excel spreadsheet. At certain points during the analysis stage of the project the student may be given responsibility for generating some basic statistics and graphs.