Following are highlights of national
news coverage that members of Mason’s
School of Public Policy received in the
past month.
Sunday, September 30, Richmond
Times-Dispatch
Falwell’s
Sons Carry on the Name of Their Father
“Can his sons succeed without the
guidance of their famous father, whose
force of personality and staggering energy
led others to call him the father of the
religious right?
Mark Rozell, a political
analyst at George Mason University, said
the brothers will step into the political
arena. ‘I can't see them not trying.
It seems to me they are indeed interested
in trying to follow through on their father's
legacy,’ Rozell said.
‘The Falwell name has currency in politics, and I think there will be a
great deal of external pressure on them from the religious conservative community
to step forward.’”
“This year is turning into a
good one for Washington Dulles International
Airport. Virgin America is its sixth
low-fare carrier to date and the fifth
new carrier this year. By the time
Virgin America launches its second
route to Los Angeles in October, Dulles
will have almost 60 low-fare flights
a day to 15 destinations. Other niche
carriers, including Maxjet, which offers
cheaper business-class seats than traditional
airlines do, have also debuted at Dulles.
Plans for new runways, parking garages,
gates and a Metro line could prompt
airlines — legacy, low-fare and
international — to move into
Dulles, said
Stephen Fuller, director
of the George Mason University's Center
for Regional Analysis. The airlines
that come in now get the gates. ‘Everyone
wants to be there,’ Fuller said. ‘They're
all fighting over available space.’”
Friday, September 28, Tavis
Smiley Show (PBS)
Professor
Michael Fauntroy was part of a three-person
roundtable discussion on the PBS Tavis
Smiley Show, analyzing the September
27 Republican presidential forum at
Morgan State University.
Thursday, September 27,
Baltimoresun.com
The Swamp: The Cost of GOP No-Shows
at Black College Debate
“Michael K. Fauntroy, a
George Mason University public policy
professor and author of Republicans
and the Black Vote, disagrees. ‘If
you’re focusing solely on getting
through the primary, then this is
really no skin off your back,’ he
said. ‘But there will be a
general election, and there will
be a Republican nominee, and at that
point, there’s going to be
a huge cost paid by not just skipping
this event, but the pattern that
has developed.’
Mark
Rozell |
|
|
Monday,
September 24,Washington Post
Va.
GOP Seizes on ‘Red-Hot’ Concern
“Candidates across the state,
particularly in the increasingly
diverse Northern Virginia suburbs,
are hearing multiple sides of the
immigration issue during visits
to neighborhoods, fairs and community
meetings. How they respond could
help determine the outcome of the
Nov. 6 elections for all 140 House
and Senate seats.... Heightened
interest in the issue has prompted
a surge of proposals by Virginia
Republican leaders. Hardly a week
goes by without a candidate announcing
an ‘action plan’ on
immigration.... ‘Republicans
feel that
|
[immigration] is a
real opportunity for them to mobilize their
base constituency, especially at a time
when the Republican grass roots are so
dispirited,’ said Mark
J. Rozell, a political science
professor at George Mason University.”
Sunday,
September 23, The Journal Gazette (AP)
Christian
Right Fights to Regain Political
Might
“Mark
Rozell, a professor of public
policy at George Mason University,
said state and local groups tend to
stick close to social issues that please
religious conservatives. Many in the
movement wrote off the national Christian
Coalition as just another mainstream
GOP group vying for power after it
got involved in foreign policy and
tax cuts, he said.
‘Even if these
local groups merely exist for one election
cycle and go out of existence, they can
still have a real impact turning people
out to vote,’ Rozell said.”
Saturday,
September 22, icWales.co.uk
(The National Web Site of Wales)
WAG Has No Excuse for Ignoring
the Brains Who Could Help Us
to Improve Our Economy
“Earlier this week, the
Scottish Government announced the
first meeting of a team of expert
economists brought together by
Alex Salmond to help plot a path
to improve Scotland’s economy.
“Chaired
by Sir George Mathewson, the former
head of the Royal Bank ofScotland,
the 11-strong Council of Economic
Advisers (CEA) was
described by
Scotland’s First Minister
as the ‘most formidable,
intellectual firepower to
have tackled Scottish economic
under-performance.’ |
Andrew
Hughes Hallett |
|
“In
a trawl
of the
best
talent
available
to advise
the
new
Scottish
Government,
Alex
Salmond
has attracted the brightest academic
and business minds in Scotland. However,
he also had the foresight to appoint
those from outside of his native country
and attracted some of the best minds
to advise him on the future direction
of his nation’s economy.
“For
example,
members
of the CEA include Frances Cairncross,
rector of Exeter College at Oxford University
and former chair of the Economic and
Social Research Council; Professor Andrew
Hughes Hallett, from George
Mason University in the US and consultant
to the IMF, the Federal Reserve Board
and the United Nations; Professor John
Kay, one of the UK’s best respected
economists; and Professor Frances Ruane,
who serves as director of Ireland’s
Economic and Social Research Institute.
He has even managed to get two Nobel
Prize winning economists—Professor
Finn Kydland and Professor Sir James
Mirrlees—to serve on the panel.”
Michael
Fauntroy |
|
|
Friday,
September 21, Newsday
Jena Rally Moves Race into Presidential
Race
“With images of
1960s-style protests being aired
from a Deep South town Thursday,
the Jena 6 case involving black
teenagers arrested for beating
a white schoolmate has tossed a
political hand grenade into the
race for the White House…
“Michael
Fauntroy, an assistant
professor of public policy at Virginia's
George Mason
University, said while other issues are
more readily discussed, race
|
remains ‘uncomfortable.’”
Friday, September 21, Midlothian
Today (Associated Press)
Scot Financial Advisers to Meet
“A specialist group charged with
driving forward Scotland's economy is meeting
for the first time. After becoming First
Minister, Alex Salmond announced the creation
of a new council of economic advisers—a
group of 11 experts who will advise him
on the best way to improve sustainable
economic growth....
“Speaking ahead of the meeting,
the First Minister said: ‘I truly
believe that this will be the greatest
group of intellectual talent ever assembled
to advise on the Scottish economy.’…
“He added: ‘Over the next
two years the council of economic advisers
will challenge accepted wisdoms and directly
advise me on how we can achieve our goal
of raising Scotland's growth rate to
the UK level by 2011.’
“The council is chaired by former Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive
and chairman Sir George Mathewson and also includes former Scottish Enterprise
boss Crawford Beveridge—both of whom backed the SNP in the election campaign.
It also includes two Nobel laureates in economics, Professor Finn Kydland,
the Henley Professor of economics at the University of California and Professor
Sir James Mirrlees of Cambridge University. Other members are Frances Cairncross
of Oxford University, Sir Robert Smith, chairman of the Weir Group and Scottish
and Southern Energy, as well as economics Professor Andrew Hughes Hallett of
George Mason University in the US, and Alex Kemp, professor of petroleum economics
at Aberdeen University.”
Wednesday, September 19, Washington
Post
Governor Steps Up Fundraising for Democratic
Senate Hopefuls
“Mark J. Rozell, a
political science professor at George Mason
University, said Kaine is positioned to
have a major impact on the election. ‘In
a close campaign, he can make the difference
and tip one or two seats to the Democrats,’ Rozell
said.”
Tuesday, September 18, Washington
Times
Candidates
Invite Questions about Their Faith
“Mark J. Rozell, a
professor at George Mason University
who studies religion and politics, said
he doubts many voters will be swayed
one way or the other by Mr. McCain's
denomination because they are looking
at policies as well as faith.
“‘Religious conservative
voters in the Republican Party care first
and foremost whether somebody is a faithful
Christian who will act in public policy
according to the positions of social
conservatives,’ he said.
“That's one reason why questions
were raised after Mr. Thompson said he
attends church when visiting Tennessee,
but said he doesn't ‘attend regularly’ when
at home in Virginia….
“On the Democratic side, religion
has received far more attention than
usual for a primary, with the top candidates
even having taken part in a televised
faith and values forum with major religious
leaders earlier this year.
"‘Democrats have discovered
the faith factor in a really big way,
and have been much more overt in expressing
their religiosity, the importance of
their religion to their public lives,
and it's not simply a private matter,’ Mr.
Rozell said.”
Tuesday, September 18, ImediNews
(UPI)
U.S. Presidentials Talk Faith
“Religion is receiving much more attention than usual from U.S.
Democratic presidential hopefuls, The Washington Times reported Tuesday.
The Democratic front-runners, for example, participated this year in their
first televised faith and values forum with major religious leaders. Democrats
have discovered the faith factor in a really big way and have been much more
overt in talking about it, Mark J. Rozell, a professor at
George Mason University who studies religion and politics, told the Times.
“Loudoun County
seems to have everything going for it.
It is one of the fastest-growing counties
in the United States, it has posted a
dramatic increase in jobs, and it enjoys
the nation's second-highest median household
income, right behind Fairfax. But to
young-adult residents the county may
have at least one glaring flaw: It looks
slightly middle-aged.... Worried that
the county could appear less than charming
to a vital part of the workforce, Loudoun's
Department of Economic Development has
flagged the attraction of 20-somethings
as an issue.... Loudoun natives never
have to leave if they don't want to,
said Stephen
Fuller, director of the Center
of Regional Analysis at George Mason
University. ‘The traditional pattern
of suburbanization is that people leave
to find high-paying jobs,’ Fuller
said. ‘Good jobs were in urban
centers. That has moved out and spilled
out to Loudoun because of the highway
system and airport.’ Mixed-use
and town center developments could propel
growth and encourage younger workers
to stay in Loudoun after they leave the
office.”
Sunday, September 16, Al Jazeera
TV
Mark Rozell spoke
on the impact of the Greenspan comments
about Bush.
Sunday, September 16, Washington
Post
Fairfax Race Stirs Power Debate
“...[U]nlike chief elected officials
in the District and Montgomery and Prince
George's counties, Fairfax's head of
government is largely a ceremonial figure.
Although he is the sole member of the
Board of Supervisors elected countywide,
Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman
Gerald E. Connolly (D) has no more power
by law than his nine colleagues who represent
geographical districts. The supervisors'
seats are also up for reelection. Together,
Connolly and the board set policy while
day-to-day operations of government are
managed by their appointee, County Executive
Anthony H. Griffin. Connolly and Baise
say the system is sound. ‘When
somebody shows me it's broken, we'll
fix it,’ Connolly said. Yet there
is a persistent minority view that Fairfax
has grown too large and complex to be
without an elected chief executive. If
it were a city, advocates argue, its
1 million residents would make it the
nation's 10th-largest, just ahead of
San Jose. ‘This is the leader of
a county more populous than several states,’ said
George Mason University political scientist
Mark Rozell.... ‘It just doesn't
make sense.’”
Friday, September 14, USA Today
GOP Candidates Ignoring Minorities
“Three of the four leading Republican
presidential candidates turned down invitations
to a PBS debate this month at a historically
black college in Baltimore, leading moderator
Tavis Smiley on Thursday to accuse them
of ignoring minority voters…
“‘I understand why they
wouldn't want to go,’ said Michael
Fauntroy, a public policy expert
at George Mason University in Virginia
and author of a new book called Republicans
and the Black Vote. But, he said,
skipping the forum will turn off moderate
suburban voters and squander the chance
to speak unfiltered to an integrated
national TV audience. There would be
plenty to talk about, Fauntroy said.
Black voters may have special concerns
about the Katrina recovery or the justice
system, for example, he said but ‘they
have the same concerns as everyone else
in terms of national security and the
economy.’”
Saturday, September 8, Deseret
Morning News
Playing
(and Not Playing) the Religion Card:
Candidate’s Denomination
Is Often Transmitted in Code
“In the northeast, says Mark
Rozell, professor in the school
of public policy at George Mason University
in Virginia, it's long been ‘considered
anathema for people to be overtly out
in the open about their religious affiliation,
beliefs and practices.’ The most
blatant expressions of religiosity
on the campaign trail are in the deep
South, he says.
“But even a little farther north, religion can sell a candidate, and
in ways not possible a generation ago. When Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine was candidate
Tim Kaine in 2005, he talked repeatedly about his Catholic faith and his work
as a missionary in South America, and the references were seen as advantageous
to him, Rozell says.
“‘We would not be having
this conversation 20 or 30 years ago
about a Catholic being able to appeal
on the basis of his religiosity to a
primarily Baptist state.... Whereas a
generation ago these groups would be
battling each other in the public square
over their doctrinal differences, today
in the political sphere they're able
to put those differences aside’ to
support common issues such as abortion
and school prayer….”
Thursday, September 6, Canada.com
(CanWest News Service)
Law & Order
Actor Leaps into U.S. Presidential
Race
“Mark Rozell, a
political scientist at George Mason University
in Fairfax, Va., said Thompson ‘has
disadvantaged himself by waiting until
now’ to announce his candidacy. ‘He
has given an opportunity for other candidates
to emerge in the field, particularly
(former Massachusetts governor) Mitt
Romney,’ Rozell said.”
Jack Goldstone was
interviewed in August for the BBC World
Service's radio program One Planet on
climate change and global security.
