M.Barreto
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101 Gowen Hall, Box 353530 University of Washington Seattle, WA 98195-3530 |
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Ph: 206-616-3584 |
Matt A. Barreto
Associate Professor, Political Science
Current Research Projects
An annual project of WISER, the Washington Poll is a statewide survey of registered voters in
Washington state that serves two purposes. First, is to collect relevant public opinion on issues of the day
in the Evergreen state and issue press releases on voter attidues and vote choice in the November election.
Second is to collect academic survey data for research on issues of ethnicity, immigration, race, prejudice
and sexual orientation for scholars working on issues of diversity in American Politics. In 2009, the Washington
Poll asked questions about racial attitudes, perceptions of immigrants, stereotypes about gays and lesbians, and
attitudes towards issues of diversity under the new Obama presidency (among a range of other topics such as health
care reform). This proejct is a collaborative effort, primarily with Chris Parker (UW Pol Sci) and Todd Donovan
(WWU Pol Sci) and WISER graduate students: Loren Collingwood, Betsy Cooper, Chris Towler, Francisco Pedraza, Marcela
Garcia-Castanon, and Ben Gonzalez. In 2009, the Washington Poll was implemented on campus at the UW Pol Sci Survey
Research Center.
The 2008 Presidential election was historic, not only because of the candidacy of Democrat Barack
Obama, but also due to the unprecedented outreach and involvement of minority voters. Blacks, Latinos, and
Asian Americans were all targets of voter mobilization, as well as speculation about the formation, or lack of
support for a broad minority coalition. This project implements a post-election survey in November-December 2008
to ask a large national sample of Blacks, Latinos, Asians, and Whites questions about mobilization, campaign interest,
group identity, media exposure, and ultimately vote choice and voter turnout. This marks the first national survey
that will have a validated voter turnout for all four major racial groups in America, each with a minimum sample of
n=1000. This project is a collaborative effort of multiple scholars studying race, public opinion, and voting, including:
Sylvia Manzano, Ricardo Ramirez, Gabe Sanchez, Karthick Ramakrishnan, Janelle Wong, Lorrie Frasure, and Ange-Marie Hancock.
[With Gabe Sanchez] Since 1980 the Latino population has doubled in size from 20 million to 40 million, and surpassed Blacks as the
largest minority group in the United States. As a result, many now question the rainbow coalition, and instead
suggest that the two minority groups are in direct competition with one another. We argue that previous research
has incorrectly measured feelings of competition or conflict, by not taking a comparative view of how Latinos or
Blacks view inter-group relations with other groups besides each other. Using data from the Latino National
Survey (2006) we test a model of Black-Brown competition to determine what factors cause Latinos to view African
Americans as their competitors. Overall, we find evidence that Latinos view very little competition with Blacks.
We find that competition is somewhat higher in Southern states, however social interactions between Latinos and
Blacks can reduce or eliminate perceptions of competition.
[With Karam Dana] Most political science research on racial and ethnic minorities in the United tends to focus on
African Americans, Asian Americans and Latinos. Further, most studies of Muslims typically look at
democratization and political participation in the Middle East. Relatively few efforts have been made to understand
the patterns of social, civic, and political participation among Arab/Muslim Americans in the United States, despite
great increases in their population, citizenship, and voter registration over recent elections. This study will
focus on two important concepts in racial/ethnic politics among Arab/Muslim Americans: the notion of linked fate or
shared group consciousness, and the resulting impact on political participation. During Eid al Adha and following through February,
we will implement a public opinion survey of Arab/Muslim Americans in the greater Seattle area, in an effort to
better understand the political impolications of religious and ethnic shared community in the U.S. and also provide
comparative data for Arab/Muslim Americans on many traditional measures of political behavior and participation.
** Enter Eid Survey **
[With Marcela Garcia-Castanon and Allison Rank] During the front-loaded presidential primary season
in 2008 many observers pointed out that, for the first time, Latino voters would have a chance to play a meaningful
role in selecting the presidential nominees. First among the “Latino states” was Nevada which hosted a nominating
contest on January 19, moving up to third in the nation. However, Nevada held a caucus similar to Iowa, not a
traditional primary election, and no research exists to inform our expectations about Latino participation in a
caucus. We combine data from a pre-election survey of Latino voters in Nevada with an exit poll of Latino voters
who participated in the caucus to investigate two important questions. First, what is the profile of Latinos who
participate in a caucus, are they among the strongest partisans, or perhaps they are more assimilated? Second,
what are the experiences of Latinos who participate in the caucus? Did they feel included or excluded? Were they
asked to speak in English or Spanish? While there has been much hype about the Latino vote in the Nevada caucus,
virtually nothing is known about Latino participation in a presidential caucus, and this paper seeks to address
this gap.
[With Jennifer Merolla & Ricardo Ramirez]
Despite limited experience courting the Latino community, both political parties made a point to campaign aggressively for
Latino “swing” votes through advertisements and get-out-the-vote (GOTV) drives in 2006. While there is a new commitment to
Spanish language advertising and direct contact with Latino voters, no evidence exists that this targeted outreach has
worked. The question remains, does targeted advertising influence the vote choice of Latinos, and, how does this
advertising affect the more general population? To address these questions, we implemented an experiment during the 2006
California election. Latino and non-Latino subjects were randomly assigned to a control or treatment group. Those in the
treated groups received a flyer endorsing Arnold Schwarzenegger for governor, containing an endorsement from a Latino or
an Anglo political figure. The treatment ads were further divided into English only or in both English/Spanish. Thus,
the groups were as follows: Anglo endorser English, Latino endorser English, Anglo endorser bilingual, and Latino endorser
bilingual. We expect to find that targeted messages should have a stronger influence on vote preference than non-targeted
messages among Latinos. Further, the combined effect of a Latino endorser with a message delivered in both languages might
have the strongest effects. Finally, non-Latinos should be less receptive to the Latino-targeted ads, perhaps witnessing a
demobilizing effect.
[With Matt Streb]
Using data from ANES 1950 – 2004 we examine the impact of district-level competitiveness on political efficacy and trust
in government. Given that an overwhelming number of the US House contests are uncompetitive, scholars have wondered what
impact the lack of competition has had on voter attitudes. From a normative standpoint, many scholars have argued that
competitive elections are essential to democracy because they make elected officials more responsive to the citizenry,
raise awareness of important issues, engage voters in debates on issues of the day, and provide opportunities for turnover
in representation, holding members of Congress accountable to the public. Theoretically, we should expect this to have a
positive result on efficacy and trust. Previous research has suggested that uncompetitive elections might decrease interest
in politics and efficacy and result in low levels of trust of government. On the other hand, always being in a district
where your co-partisan wins could increase satisfaction with your member of Congress while bitterly fought campaigns might
become negative and turn voters off from the electoral process and both parties, resulting in lower levels of efficacy and
trust. This paper will take up this debate by taking a comprehensive approach which incorporates a national dataset over
period of 50 years. This approach will also allow us to determine how this relationship has changed over time, and varies
by region.
Contact: mbarreto
u.washington.edu