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
Assistant Professor, Political Science
Current Research Projects
[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 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 Barry Pump] In 2007-08 King County, Washington will transition to an all vote-by-mail voting system, doing away with the polling place
precincts. November 2007 will mark the last countywide election in which polling place precincts are still used. This
project will gather valuable information from polling place voters as to why they do not use the absentee ballot, and what
questions or challenges they face with regard to the 2008 transition to all vote-by-mail. In addition, general public
opinion and political attitude questions will be asked. The results will help inform the voter education and outreach that
is conducted during the transition period.
[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.
[With Stephen Nuño]
Since the 2000 Presidential election voter education and mobilization has witnessed a renaissance in targeted contact and
segmented messaging. Candidates, political parties, and interest groups have taken advantage of advances in electronic
databases to divide and subdivide the electorate into different groups, and have different messages and messengers for
each subgroup of voters. For decades, scholars and practitioners have known that personalized campaign appeals are more
effective (e.g. Wolfinger 1965; Uhlaner 1989; Rosenstone and Hansen 1993). Labor unions, religious leaders, military
veterans, and racial and ethnic community leaders have typically been used by campaigns to make a stronger, more
personalized, and perhaps more trusting connection with voters. While nationwide and one-size-fits-all campaigns can be
cheaper and easier to implement, smaller, targeted campaigns might be more effective in winning the hearts and minds of
voters. This paper takes up the question of whether or not personalized or segmented contact during a campaign is more
successful at convincing voters than “generic” contact, or no contact at all. Using data from a national survey of Latino
registered voters in 2004, we examine the impact of being contacted by a co-ethnic messenger on support for the Republican
and Democratic parties. While some previous studies have examined just voter turnout (Shaw et. al. 2000; Michelson 2003)
or vote choice (Nuño 2005), this paper is the first to examine the deeper implications of co-ethnic contact, including
support for public policy, candidate favorability, and strength of partisanship. For both Republican and Democratic
contact, we find that Latinos who were contacted by fellow Latinos were significantly more likely to support the respective
party and policy issues. Further, partisan contact from non-Latinos appears to have a somewhat demobilizing effect,
suggesting that who knocks on your door is potentially more important than what they say.
Contact: mbarreto
u.washington.edu