I hold a Ph.D. in Government from Cornell University (2010), an M.A. in Political Science from Minnesota State University, Mankato (2005), and a B.A. in Political Science and Business from Concordia College, Moorhead, MN (2001). In a former life, I was a political strategist working on campaigns for the U.S. House and Senate.  I served as high-level staff with a focus on communications and general strategy.  On various federal campaigns, I held titles of Campaign Manager, Area Manager, Finance Director, and Policy Adviser. More recently, I have done freelance work in U.S. House races as a polling/analysis consultant.

My broad research interests lie in American elections and political behavior, with a particular focus on the effects of policy changes in campaign finance and election administration, as well as the manner in which citizens evaluate politicians involved in political scandals.

Much of my published and forthcoming work to date examines the impact of public election funding programs in the American states, with particular emphasis on the "Clean Elections" programs in Arizona, Connecticut, and Maine. My first book, entitled Subsidizing Democracy: How Public Funding Changes Elections, and How it Can Work in the Future (Cornell University Press), provides an in-depth look at public funding, describing how subsidies have changed the elections in which they are utilized, how the Supreme Court has interpreted public funding regulations, and how those policies can work in the future. Along with my other research on public funding, that book has been discussed in a range of news media, including MSNBC, CSPAN-2, The Washington Post, and Pacific Standard, and has been cited as empirical evidence before both the United States Supreme Court and the United States Senate.

A second book, Super PAC! Money, Elections, and Voters after Citizens United (coauthored with Conor Dowling), and published  by  Routledge, was released in  early 2014. That book examines the 2010 federal court decisions that effectively created a new campaign finance environment in federal elections. It also details the flow of money in federal politics in that year and beyond, and employs a number of public opinion surveys and embedded survey experiments to gauge not only how much people know about existing campaign finance law, but also whether they notice the activity of super PACs and related groups and/or are able to distinguish between their activities and those of candidates.

My spare time is largely devoted to road running, playing as much roots rock (vocals, guitar, banjo, harmonica, keys, and percussion) as possible--either in bands or as a solo performer--and dealing with the constant heartbreak supplied by my beloved Minnesota Vikings.