Abstract
I am pleased to announce that the winner of the 2014 Hahn-Sigelman Prize for best paper published in American Politics Research is “Candidates, Competition, and the Partisan Press: Congressional Elections in the Early Antebellum Era” by Jamie L. Carson and M.V. Hood III. It appeared in the September 2014 issue (volume 42, issue 5), and was singled out by the prize committee as an outstanding example of a well-written and original analysis that makes a strong theoretical contribution. The authors employ novel data from the early Nineteenth Century to demonstrate that district-specific factors such as candidate quality were important factors influencing election outcomes even in that era of weak parties, close races, and highly partisan newspapers. It will be of great interest to those interested in elections, the media, and American history.
The prize is named in honor of two past editors of this journal. Harlan Hahn (1939-2008) was the founding editor of American Politics Quarterly (which shifted from a quarterly to a bi-monthly journal in 2001). He served as editor from 1973 until 1978. His research spanned many areas, including urban studies, health politics, and criminal justice. A survivor of childhood polio, he was also a strong advocate of disability rights, and was a pioneer in the academic field of disability studies. He also contributed to the passage of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Lee Sigelman (1945-2009) edited American Politics Research from 1982 to 1987, from the University of Kentucky, the NSF, and the University of Arizona. He later edited the American Political Science Review, from George Washington University. Over a long and very productive career, he authored hundreds of articles and multiple books, won many prizes for his diverse work on political behavior, and was renowned not only for being consistently insightful but also for being exceptionally funny.
I am grateful for the assistance of the 2014 prize committee, Iris Hui (Stanford University and 2013 Hahn-Sigelman Prize winner), Wendy Martinek (Binghamton University), and Timothy Nokken (Texas Tech University).