Fall 2010     Volume 19, No. 1     Full-issue Table of Contents follows the headline story at the bottom of this page

Cook and Rothenberg Deliver Annual 

Pi Sigma Alpha Lecture at APSA '10

A lecture by prominent political analysts Charles E. Cook, Jr. and Stuart Rothenberg on the then-upcoming 2010 midterm elections was one of the highlights of this year's Pi Sigma Alpha presence at the Annual Meeting and Exhibition of the American Political Science Association (APSA '10), held September 2-5, 2010 in Washington, DC. Cook and Rothenberg co-presented this year's Pi Sigma Alpha Lecture at APSA '10 to an audience of approximately 220-240 attendees on Thursday evening, September 2. Making their points with an enjoyable mix of empirical data, information gleaned from personal interviews with congressional leaders or party operatives, and humorous vignettes about encounters with various Washington "power players," the speakers accurately predicted that the Republican Party would wind up taking control of the House of Representatives with a net gain of around 50 seats (their websites later revised this figure upward into the sixties just prior to Election Day, which turned out to be even more accurate) in the 2010 elections, but that it would probably miss winning control of the Senate by a mere few. According to Charlie Cook, "this isn't necessarily a sweeping endorsement of the G.O.P., just as 2008 wasn't one for the Democrats; both parties do badly in polling that measures support for their agendas." Rather, Cook said, it is a testament to the frustration of many voters who expect strong, relatively immediate results on the economic and unemployment fronts, and who appear to be ready to engage primarily in anti-incumbent voting when they give control of government to a party and it does not, in the minds of said voters, "deliver tangible results" in a short amount of time. After roughly an hour of engaging (and refreshingly impromptu, in many cases) remarks, the two speakers took questions from the audience regarding the elections, the "Tea Party" movement and other subjects that were addressed during the Lecture.

Rothenberg (photo, far left) is editor/publisher of The Rothenberg Political Report, a nonpartisan political newsletter covering U.S. House, Senate and gubernatorial campaigns, Presidential politics and political developments. He is also a twice-a-week columnist for Roll Call, Capitol Hill’s premier newspaper. He holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Connecticut. Rothenberg has taught at Bucknell University and at the Catholic University of America. He has also appeared on Meet the Press, This Week, Face the Nation, The NewsHour, Nightline and many other television programs. He is often quoted in the nation’s major media, and his op-eds have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and other newspapers. Prior to service as an election night analyst for PBS in 2008 and 2010 and CBS News in 2006, he was a political analyst for Cable News Network between 1992-2004.  Cook (photo, near left) is publisher of The Cook Political Report and political analyst for the National Journal Group, where he writes weekly for National Journal magazine and CongressDailyAM. He also writes a regular column for the Washington Quarterly, published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and is a political analyst for NBC News. Cook has appeared on all three major broadcast networks' evening news programs, as well as on Good Morning America, the Today Show, Nightline, Meet the Press and This Week. He has also appeared many times on CNBC, MSNBC, CNN, C-SPAN and National Public Radio. Both men and their publications have received numerous accolades from sitting politicians, media and the general public for their objective, bipartisan approach to analysis of and commentary about election data and outcomes; they have also been very accurate in predicting most national elections, including midterm results, over the last decade.

    Earlier in the day on Thursday, Pi Sigma Alpha's Executive Council met and reviewed the ongoing business, policy and financial affairs of the Society, as is customary for it to do at APSA meetings. On Friday, September 3, the Society held its biennial Business Meeting for chapter advisors; roughly 60 faculty advisors from colleges and universities across the country attended this event, the highlight of which was the Society's formal installation and swearing of its new President, Professor Robin Kolodny of Temple University. Additionally, the Society welcomed Professor Alice Jackson of Morgan State University (photo, lower right) as its new President-Elect, to take over from Kolodny at the end of her term, and offered its most grateful thanks to the outstanding leadership offered by outgoing President James E. Campbell of the University at Buffalo for the past two years. Immediately after the Business Meeting, Pi Sigma Alpha co-sponsored with APSA the Reception Honoring Teaching, which recognizes some of the most outstanding teaching efforts by Political Science faculty at their home institutions over the previous year.

Other highlights of APSA '10 can be found at this link, which includes both Society and non-Society-related events; attendees were particularly excited by the opportunity to attend this years' APSA Plenary Address, presented by Nobel Laureate Professor Elinor Ostrom of Indiana University, entitled "Addressing the Theory of Collective Action from a Multiple Methods Perspective." This year's meeting theme was “The Politics of Hard Times: Citizens, Nations, and the International System under Economic Stress.” Over 7300 political scientists from all over the world registered and attended the meeting. The annual APSA Meeting and Exhibition is the largest single professional conference of political scientists in the world.

Also In This Issue (this menu is duplicated in the "In This Issue" button in the top frame, above):

• Chapter News for Fall 2010
• President's Remarks from President Robin Kolodny, Temple University
• Notes From the National Office
• What's In a Name? A Hopefully Helpful (And Important!) Explanation for Chapter Advisors
• Just In Time For the Holidays: New Items at the Pi Sigma Alpha Shop!
• Graduate School Opportunities: California University of Pennsylvania
• Learn About Political Science Professional Organizations: Links to APSA, MPSA, SPSA, WPSA , SSSA, NEPSA
• Advisors: Order Your Cords and Medallions Before the Price Increase!

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