Campaign Finance Laws and Political Efficacy: Evidence From the States

The decline of political efficacy and trust in the United States is often linked to the rise of money in politics. Both the courts and reform advocates justify restrictions on campaign donations and spending as necessary for the improvement of links between the government and the governed. We conduct the first test of whether campaign finance laws actually influence how citizens view their government by exploiting the variation in campaign finance regulations both across and within states during the last half of the 20th century. Our analysis reveals no large positive effects of campaign finance laws on political efficacy. Public disclosure laws and limits on contributions from organizations are in some cases associated with modest increases in efficacy, but public financing is associated with a similarly modest decrease in efficacy.Campaign finance, trust, social capital

The Effects of Campaign Finance Laws on Turnout, 1950-2000

Scholars have proposed many routes by which campaign finance laws may impact turnout. For instance, laws restricting campaign spending may decrease mobilization, resulting in lower turnout. Alternatively, such laws might increase the competitiveness of elections, resulting in higher turnout. Existing studies tend to focus on only one causal pathway, ignoring the net effects of campaign finance reforms on voter turnout. We exploit the variation in state campaign finance laws from 1950 to 2000 in order to estimate the reduced-form relationships between reform and turnout. Using both aggregate and individual-level data, we find that campaign finance laws on net have little impact on turnout in gubernatorial elections. There are two exceptions to this finding: Limits on organizational contributions are shown in an individual level analysis to increase turnout prior to a sea change in campaign finance ushered in by the Buckley v. Valeo decision in 1976, while public financing laws are shown to have an equally large negative impact on turnout in the post-Buckley era. These results strengthens the existing literature, which finds similarly perverse effects of public financing on the quality of democracy, and demonstrates the advantages of reduced-form analysis for understanding the influence of laws on behavior.voting, campaign finance

Estimating the Impact of State Policies and Institutions with Mixed-Level Data

Researchers often seek to understand the effects of state policies or institutions on individual behavior or other outcomes in sub-state-level observational units (e.g., election results in state legislative districts). However, standard estimation methods applied to such models do not properly account for the clustering of observations within states and may lead researchers to overstate the statistical significance of state-level factors. We discuss the theory behind two approaches to dealing with clusteringclustered standard errors and multilevel modeling. We then demonstrate the relevance of this topic by replicating a recent study of the effects of state post-registration laws on voter turnout (Wolfinger, Highton, and Mullin 2005). While we view clustered standard errors as a more straightforward, feasible approach, especially when working with large datasets or many cross-level interactions, our purpose in this Practical Researcher piece is to draw attention to the issue of clustering in state and local politics research.mixed-level data, voter turnout

The Effects of Campaign Finance Laws on Turnout, 1950-2000

Scholars have proposed many routes by which campaign finance laws may impact turnout. For instance, laws restricting campaign spending may decrease mobilization, resulting in lower turnout. Alternatively, such laws might increase the competitiveness of elections, resulting in higher turnout. Existing studies tend to focus on only one causal pathway, ignoring the net effects of campaign finance reforms on voter turnout. We exploit the variation in state campaign finance laws from 1950 to 2000 in order to estimate the reduced-form relationships between reform and turnout. Using both aggregate and individual-level data, we find that campaign finance laws on net have little impact on turnout in gubernatorial elections. There are two exceptions to this finding: Limits on organizational contributions are shown in an individual level analysis to increase turnout prior to a sea change in campaign finance ushered in by the Buckley v. Valeo decision in 1976, while public financing laws are shown to have an equally large negative impact on turnout in the post-Buckley era. These results strengthens the existing literature, which finds similarly perverse effects of public financing on the “quality of democracy,” and demonstrates the advantages of reduced-form analysis for understanding the influence of laws on behavior

Campaign Finance Laws and Political Efficacy: Evidence From the States

The decline of political efficacy and trust in the United States is often linked to the rise of money in politics. Both the courts and reform advocates justify restrictions on campaign donations and spending as necessary for the improvement of links between the government and the governed. We conduct the first test of whether campaign finance laws actually influence how citizens view their government by exploiting the variation in campaign finance regulations both across and within states during the last half of the 20th century. Our analysis reveals no large positive effects of campaign finance laws on political efficacy. Public disclosure laws and limits on contributions from organizations are in some cases associated with modest increases in efficacy, but public financing is associated with a similarly modest decrease in efficacy

Estimating the Impact of State Policies and Institutions with Mixed-Level Data

Researchers often seek to understand the effects of state policies or institutions on individual behavior or other outcomes in sub-state-level observational units (e.g., election results in state legislative districts). However, standard estimation methods applied to such models do not properly account for the clustering of observations within states and may lead researchers to overstate the statistical significance of state-level factors. We discuss the theory behind two approaches to dealing with clustering—clustered standard errors and multilevel modeling. We then demonstrate the relevance of this topic by replicating a recent study of the effects of state post-registration laws on voter turnout (Wolfinger, Highton, and Mullin 2005). While we view clustered standard errors as a more straightforward, feasible approach, especially when working with large datasets or many cross-level interactions, our purpose in this Practical Researcher piece is to draw attention to the issue of clustering in state and local politics research

Resection of multifocal non–small cell lung cancer when the bronchioloalveolar subtype is involved

AbstractObjectiveBronchioloalveolar lung cancer is commonly multifocal and can also present with other non–small cell types. The staging and treatment of multifocal non–small cell cancer are controversial. We evaluated the current staging of multifocal bronchioloalveolar carcinoma and the therapeutic effectiveness of resection when this tumor type is involved.MethodsWe reviewed our experience between 1992 and 2000 with complete pulmonary resections for bronchioloalveolar carcinoma. Kaplan-Meier survival curves were calculated from the dates of pulmonary resection.ResultsAmong 73 patients with bronchioloalveolar carcinoma, 14 patients, 7 male and 7 female with a mean age of 65 years (51-87 years), had multifocal lesions without lymph node metastases. Follow-up was 100% for a median of 5 years (range 2.6-8.5 years). Tumor distribution was unilateral in 9 patients and bilateral in 5 patients. The multifocal nature of the disease was discovered intraoperatively in 4 patients. Nine patients had 2 lesions, 4 patients had 3 lesions, and 1 patient had innumerable discrete foci in a single lobe. Operative mortality was 0. Postoperatively, 10 patients were staged pIIIB or pIV on the basis of multiple foci of similar morphology; 4 patients had some differences in histology (implying multiple stage 1 primaries). The median survival time to death from cancer was 14 months (141 days–5.6 years). The overall 5-year survival after resection of multifocal bronchioloalveolar carcinoma was 64%. Unilateral or bilateral distribution had no impact on survival.ConclusionsThe current staging system is not prognostic for multifocal bronchioloalveolar carcinoma without lymph node metastases. Complete resection of multifocal non–small cell lung cancer when bronchioloalveolar carcinoma is a component may achieve survivals similar to that of stage I and II unifocal non–small cell lung cancer. When bronchioloalveolar carcinoma is believed to be one of the cell types in multifocal disease without lymph node metastases, consideration should be given to surgical resection

Guide RNA structure design enables combinatorial CRISPRa programs for biosynthetic profiling

Engineering metabolism to efficiently produce chemicals from multi-step pathways requires optimizing multi-gene expression programs to achieve enzyme balance. CRISPR-Cas transcriptional control systems are emerging as important tools for programming multi-gene expression, but poor predictability of guide RNA folding can disrupt expression control. Here, we correlate efficacy of modified guide RNAs (scRNAs) for CRISPR activation (CRISPRa) in E. coli with a computational kinetic parameter describing scRNA folding rate into the active structure (rS = 0.8). This parameter also enables forward design of scRNAs, allowing us to design a system of three synthetic CRISPRa promoters that can orthogonally activate (>35-fold) expression of chosen outputs. Through combinatorial activation tuning, we profile a three-dimensional design space expressing two different biosynthetic pathways, demonstrating variable production of pteridine and human milk oligosaccharide products. This RNA design approach aids combinatorial optimization of metabolic pathways and may accelerate routine design of effective multi-gene regulation programs in bacterial hosts

CD200R1 Supports HSV-1 Viral Replication and Licenses Pro-Inflammatory Signaling Functions of TLR2

The CD200R1:CD200 axis is traditionally considered to limit tissue inflammation by down-regulating pro-inflammatory signaling in myeloid cells bearing the receptor. We generated CD200R1−/− mice and employed them to explore both the role of CD200R1 in regulating macrophage signaling via TLR2 as well as the host response to an in vivo, TLR2-dependent model, herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) infection. CD200R1−/− peritoneal macrophages demonstrated a 70–75% decrease in the generation of IL-6 and CCL5 (Rantes) in response to the TLR2 agonist Pam2CSK4 and to HSV-1. CD200R1−/− macrophages could neither up-regulate the expression of TLR2, nor assemble a functional inflammasome in response to HSV-1. CD200R1−/− mice were protected from HSV-1 infection and exhibited dysfunctional TLR2 signaling. Finally, both CD200R1−/− mice and CD200R1−/− fibroblasts and macrophages showed a markedly reduced ability to support HSV-1 replication. In summary, our data demonstrate an unanticipated and novel requirement for CD200R1 in “licensing” pro-inflammatory functions of TLR2 and in limiting viral replication that are supported by ex vivo and in vivo evidence