THE STRUCTURE OF ELECTORAL SUCCESS: DETERMINING VICTORY OR DEFEAT FROM CONTRIBUTION DISPERSION IN STATE LEGISLATIVE RACES

How does the distribution of contributors to a candidate relate to a candidate’s potential for electoral success? Rather than assume that electoral politics in the United States is a plutocratic exercise, I argue that diversity, or dispersion, in a donor pool is just as valuable to candidate as being well-financed. The candidates who are able to achieve diverse contributor pools are just as likely to win as those with fewer, large donors, due to their increased representational potential. Democratic governance, then, can be supported by candidates with broad sets of contributors; these candidates should be just as likely to win their elections because of the heterogeneity of their contributor bases as the candidates who are funded by a few, wealthy citizens. Hypotheses are tested using a unique data set of 2010 state legislative election contributions and results. Two aspects of dispersion theory, including the geographic spread of contributors across a candidate’s district and early giving, are found to significantly increase candidate vote shares

The presidential performance of George W. Bush as a visual construct

The purpose of this study is to examine George W. Bush\u27s performance as President of the United States through mediated visual messages. In this paper performance will be conceptualized using a content analysis method. This paper presents the notion that presidential performance and the job of being president are linked. The study is meant to watch President Bush and document his appearances as seen through mediated images. The New York Times\u27 front pages from George W. Bush\u27s first inauguration in January 2001 up to his re-election and second oath of office in 2005 were analyzed for six categories of visual depictions in the areas of speech making, commander-in-chief, official paperwork, domestic diplomacy, foreign diplomacy, and domestic luminance. These elements help define presidential performance visually. The New York Times newspaper was chosen for this study because it is considered the nation\u27s paper of record. Along with national circulation, the New York Times also circulates throughout the world and has reporters and photographers on hand to visually document the President\u27s activities and the persona he portrays through those official activities. As a construct, performance may be defined in many ways, but in this paper it is defined as the things one does while in public office that help define the nature of that public office as articulated in Article II, Sections 2 and 3 of the United States Constitution; It was observed in this study that images of Present Bush were most often located above the fold of the newspaper and in the middle of the page. President Bush was making speeches in 28% of images collected and was shown as Commander-in-Chief in 9.3% of images. Domestic Luminance is the variable with the most frequency having a total of 47.6% of the images collected and Official Paperwork was the least frequent with only five images total. Public Diplomacy comprised 13.2% of images collected and 22% of the images collected were of Foreign Diplomacy; This study attempts to understand Bush\u27s performance as president through pictorial representation of significant foreign and domestic events that occurred during his first term in office. This paper also exhibits the man as president through his various day-to-day activities, showing the human element of Bush as a leader. As the pictorial artifacts of the Bush presidency are analyzed, questions concerning what the image might say about the president\u27s performance are addressed

No More Babbling! Providing “Just in Time” Instructions, Examples, and Project Development Guidance on Key Assessments Using the Sound Booth

This poster highlights a project that was funded by an Academic Technology Innovation Grant (ATIG) awarded from the Center for Academic Technology (CAT) at Butler University

Educational Mismatch and the Earnings Distribution : Where Does the Mismatch Bite?

Publisher PD

Making Cultural Heritage Artifacts into 3D Digital Objects Using Photogrammetry : Final Report

The project Making Cultural Heritage Artifacts into 3D Digital Objects Using Photogrammetry aimed to demonstrate that the conversion of analog materials into 3D digital objects is possible with the use of affordable equipment and the use of open source platforms for processing and editing. Our gratitude is with the Private Academic Library Network of Indiana (PALNI), who supported our project with the necessary funding through the 2019 PALNI Innovation Grant. With the generosity and support of PALNI this project was able to succeed and Butler University Libraries and the Center for Academic Technology is happy to report on our success, challenges, and lessons learned