The USC Schwarzenegger Institute is proud to partner with the Morrison Institute of Public Policy at Arizona State University on issues around political reform policies that make our system more accountable to the voters. On November 16, 2016, the Morrison Institute hosted the State of Our State: Public Policy Choices for Arizona in Phoenix, Arizona. The theme of the conference was the changing electorate and independent voters in the 2016 election. Participants included academicians, elected officials, media, policy advocates, and political consultants such as ASU President Michael Crow, Jackie Salit of IndependentVoting.org, former Phoenix mayor and top-two primary advocate Paul Johnson, former U.S. Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ), and former U.S. Representative Ed Pastor (D-AZ). The discussions focused on changes in voting patterns in 2016, and expectations for policy-making and the state of the parties going forward.
Christian Grose, faculty fellow at the USC Schwarzenegger Institute, participated in a panel on the 2016 election, media, and social networks at the ASU event. On the panel, Grose discussed the increasing fragmentation of media usage by Americans and implications for elections in the future. Grose also mentioned his own research on the impact of California’s political reforms; and contrasted the results of the elections in California conducted under the top-two primary to those elections in Arizona conducted under a different semi-closed primary system. Debating and considering these and other topics on Grose’s panel were Douglas Schoen (Fox News), Eugene Scott (CNN), Thomas Reilly (Director, ASU Morrison Institute and USC Ph.D. in public policy) and Professor Doug Chapin (University of Minnesota).
Continuing research and collaborations that explores the best political reform policies that make our government work together and solve the problems faced by voters in their daily lives is an Institute priority.