The Washington Post published commentary by Abby Wood of the USC Gould School and Christian Grose of the USC Dornsife College on whether elected officials who violate campaign finance laws will be punished at the polls. The authors turned to the post-Watergate era when campaign finance violations were often in the headlines. Violations at that time told voters that a candidate was, at worst, corrupt or, at best, a disorganized manager, the authors wrote.

Our current political climate has enough parallels to the Watergate era that we suspect voters will react negatively to campaign finance violations again. We will find out Nov. 6.

Toward the end of the spring semester, representatives from three university student organizations showed up at a class taught by USC Price School of Public Policy Professor LaVonna Lewis and announced she had been chosen as the recipient of the 2018 Student Government Community Achievement Award.

“The study of state and local politics has taken off over the last decade. Data, methods, and research interests have evolved. There are a variety of important questions that can’t be examined well at the Federal level, because of severe case limitations.  But scholars can get leverage on these questions thanks to the sizable and interesting variation that exists at the state and local levels,” said Jeff Jenkins as he brought together scholars from across the nation to examine the study of subnational policy making.

“In order for us to be inclusive, we need to really highlight that representation matters and include as many people, organizations, thought processes and concerns that people may have,” said Malaika Merid, a second-year Master of Public Policy Student at USC Price who was one of the event organizers. “This is a gathering space of real diverse thought, and I think that the best way for us to move forward with that is to keep creating ways to find more diversity of thought to be included within the forum.”