POLITICAL EXPERTISE

ECU experts available to discuss state and national election topics

As we move closer to the November elections, East Carolina University political science faculty from the Raleigh, Durham and Greenville areas are available to speak to reporters about state and national election issues. See individual areas of expertise, interests and contact information below.

National Politics

  • Jody C. Baumgartner
    baumgartnerb@ecu.edu, 252-328-2843 (office)
    Expertise: campaigns and elections
    Availability: Greenville

    Baumgartner is a professor of political science and author of several books, including “Modern Presidential Electioneering: An Organizational and Comparative Approach” and with Peter Francia, “Conventional Wisdom and American Elections: Exploding Myths, Exploring Misconceptions,” now in its third edition. He has also written or collaborated on three dozen articles and book chapters on political humor, the vice presidency and other subjects.

  • Peter L. Francia
    franciap@ecu.edu, 252-328-6126 (office), http://myweb.ecu.edu/franciap/francia.html
    Expertise: campaign finance, interest groups and public opinion
    Availability: Raleigh and Greenville

    Francia is a professor of political science and co-director of leadership studies. He specializes in American politics at the national level. He is the former president of the North Carolina Political Science Association and is the author of numerous books, journal articles, and book chapters, including his most recent publication, the third edition of “Conventional Wisdom and American Elections: Exploding Myths, Exploring Misconceptions,” co-authored with Jody Baumgartner.

  • Brad Lockerbie
    lockerbieb@ecu.edu, 252-328-1066 (office), http://myweb.ecu.edu/lockerbieb/index.html
    Expertise: economics and elections
    Availability: Greenville

    A professor of political science, Lockerbie specializes in American politics with a focus on economics and elections. He is also part of the quadrennial presidential forecasting group at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association. He is the author of “Do Voters Look to the Future? Economics and Elections.”

  • Jonathan S. Morris
    morrisj@ecu.edu, 252-328-1067 (office)
    Expertise: humor and American politics
    Availability: Greenville

    Morris is an associate professor of political science. His research focuses on the media and American politics, especially political humor and cable news. He co-authored “Politics is a Joke! How TV Comedians are Remaking Political Life” and has published in several journals, including Political Research Quarterly, Public Opinion Quarterly, Legislative Studies Quarterly and Political Behavior.

  • Carmine Scavo
    scavoc@ecu.edu, 252-737-2335 (office), http://www.ecu.edu/polsci/faculty/scavo.html
    Expertise: state and local government, intergovernmental relations and political methodology
    Availability: Greenville

    Scavo is professor of political science and director of the Master of Public Administration program. He teaches courses in State and Local Government, Intergovernmental Relations, and Political Methodology. He has published articles in Public Administration Review, Publius: the Journal of Federalism, Social Science Quarterly, and the Journal of Urban Affairs and chapters in edited volumes. Since 1984, he has been co-author of the American Political Science Association’s quadrennial American National Election Study SETUPS (Supplementary Empirical Teaching Unit in Political Science) series of monographs and datasets that are designed to educate students in the analysis of voting behavior in US elections.

North Carolina and National Politics

  • Thomas Eamon
    eamont@ecu.edu; 252-328-1061 (office)
    Expertise: North Carolina and Southern politics
    Availability: Durham and Greenville

    Eamon is an associate professor of political science specializing in North Carolina and Southern politics. He is the author of a major book on post-World War II North Carolina politics, “The Making of a Southern Democracy,” published in 2014.