Damon M Cann
Biographic Data
| ID | 2068815 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Damon M Cann |
| GIVEN NAMES | Damon M |
| FAMILY NAME | Cann |
| SIGNATURE | CANN D M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Utah State University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 172 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 13 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Breaking Barriers
Although state prosecutors play a critically important role in the U.S. criminal justice system, these elections have received limited scholarly attention. Prosecutor elections historically have been dominated by men but have seen growing numbers of women candidates. Using data from elections between 2012 and 2020 in the 200 most populous prosecutorial districts, we assess the likelihood of a woman candidate running for the office and her chances…
Electronic vs. Paper Voter Guides and Citizen Knowledge
Scholars are generally aware of a lack of citizen knowledge about politics in the United States. One commonly suggested remedy is the production of nonpartisan voter guides to provide voters a simple and low-cost information source to help inform voters. One of the more significant variations across states is whether the voter guide is provided in a hard-copy format or distributed on the internet. This paper explores the results of a randomized c…
Polls and Elections Without Rhyme or Reason? Understanding Presidential Nomination Delegate Allocation Rules
Given the prevailing two‐party system in the United States, presidential primary and caucus outcomes strongly influence the choices available to voters in presidential elections. While the Democratic Party has strong national rules on how delegates are to be awarded from primaries and caucuses, the Republican Party allows significant local discretion in crafting rules that translate primary and/or caucus outcomes into pledged delegates. This is s…
Party Identification and Vote Choice in Partisan and Nonpartisan Elections
Judicial Independence and Opinion Clarity on State Supreme Courts
We contribute to the literature on judicial independence and performance in the states by analyzing opinion clarity. Written opinions are the primary means of communication for state supreme court justices, and clarity is a core component of judicial performance. Using automated text analysis on a sample of state supreme court opinions from all 50 states, we find that variation in judicial retention systems is not associated with substantively me…
Analyzing Text Complexity in Political Science Research
This article analyzes the text complexity of political science research. Using automated text analysis, we examine the text complexity of a sample of articles from three leading generalist journals and four leading subfield journals. We also examine changes in text complexity across time by analyzing a sample of articles from the discipline’s flagship journal during a 100-year span. Although it is not surprising that a typical political science a…
Voter response to congressional campaigns
Exchange Theory, Political Parties, and the Allocation of Federal Distributive Benefits in the House of Representatives
Many works acknowledge partisan differences in distributive benefits. Few works, however, have empirically examined the role party-building activities play in these distributions. Through Exchange Theory, we hypothesize that legislators are rewarded with distributive benefits for promoting the legislative and electoral goals of the party. Using data on party unity, member-to-member contributions, and distributive benefits, we observe these exchan…
Campaign Spending, Diminishing Marginal Returns, and Campaign Finance Restrictions in Judicial Elections
For years, scholars of elections have argued about whether campaign finance limitations adversely affect electoral competition. In this article, we examine how the institutional campaign finance restrictions differentially affect the performance of incumbents and challengers. Using elections for the state high court bench between 1990 and 2004, we demonstrate that candidate spending in judicial elections has diminishing marginal returns, but that…
Case Visibility and the Electoral Connection in State Supreme Courts
Critics traditionally portray state Supreme Court elections as low-information events that fail to accomplish the stated goal of engendering accountability to the public. Recent changes in the intensity of contestable judicial elections have led scholars to consider the effect of public opinion on state court decision making. We delineate necessary conditions for judicial responsiveness to public opinion, integrating research on state court decis…
Religious Identification and Legislative Voting
While religion has profound effects on political behavior in mass publics, less is known about the effect of religion on political elites. This article considers the extent to which religious identification influences the roll-call voting behavior of Mormon members of the U.S. House of Representatives. While some aspects of Mormonism make it seem like a likely case for religious influence, the literature on legislative decision making provides no…
Modeling Committee Chair Selection in the U.S. House of Representatives
For many years, committee chairs have been selected on the basis of seniority. Recent work has suggested that alternative factors, specifically financial support of party goals and party unity, have diminished the importance of seniority in committee chair selection. However, previous work has either failed to quantify these effects or has done so with inappropriate methods. This paper argues for the use of a Bayesian conditional logit estimator …
Homegrown Institutional Legitimacy
Since the United States Supreme Court's decision in Bush v. Gore, the public's support for the judicial system looms as an especially important concern. Although studies have confirmed that the Supreme Court's reservoir of public goodwill has remained largely intact following the politically divisive decision, the status of public support for other American courts has received little attention. This reflects a broader trend in judicial politics s…
Party Identification and Vote Choice in Partisan and Nonpartisan Elections
Modeling Committee Chair Selection in the U.S. House of Representatives
For many years, committee chairs have been selected on the basis of seniority. Recent work has suggested that alternative factors, specifically financial support of party goals and party unity, have diminished the importance of seniority in committee chair selection. However, previous work has either failed to quantify these effects or has done so with inappropriate methods. This paper argues for the use of a Bayesian conditional logit estimator …
Campaign Spending, Diminishing Marginal Returns, and Campaign Finance Restrictions in Judicial Elections
For years, scholars of elections have argued about whether campaign finance limitations adversely affect electoral competition. In this article, we examine how the institutional campaign finance restrictions differentially affect the performance of incumbents and challengers. Using elections for the state high court bench between 1990 and 2004, we demonstrate that candidate spending in judicial elections has diminishing marginal returns, but that…
Homegrown Institutional Legitimacy
Since the United States Supreme Court's decision in Bush v. Gore, the public's support for the judicial system looms as an especially important concern. Although studies have confirmed that the Supreme Court's reservoir of public goodwill has remained largely intact following the politically divisive decision, the status of public support for other American courts has received little attention. This reflects a broader trend in judicial politics s…
Judicial Independence and Opinion Clarity on State Supreme Courts
We contribute to the literature on judicial independence and performance in the states by analyzing opinion clarity. Written opinions are the primary means of communication for state supreme court justices, and clarity is a core component of judicial performance. Using automated text analysis on a sample of state supreme court opinions from all 50 states, we find that variation in judicial retention systems is not associated with substantively me…
Case Visibility and the Electoral Connection in State Supreme Courts
Critics traditionally portray state Supreme Court elections as low-information events that fail to accomplish the stated goal of engendering accountability to the public. Recent changes in the intensity of contestable judicial elections have led scholars to consider the effect of public opinion on state court decision making. We delineate necessary conditions for judicial responsiveness to public opinion, integrating research on state court decis…
Exchange Theory, Political Parties, and the Allocation of Federal Distributive Benefits in the House of Representatives
Many works acknowledge partisan differences in distributive benefits. Few works, however, have empirically examined the role party-building activities play in these distributions. Through Exchange Theory, we hypothesize that legislators are rewarded with distributive benefits for promoting the legislative and electoral goals of the party. Using data on party unity, member-to-member contributions, and distributive benefits, we observe these exchan…
Analyzing Text Complexity in Political Science Research
This article analyzes the text complexity of political science research. Using automated text analysis, we examine the text complexity of a sample of articles from three leading generalist journals and four leading subfield journals. We also examine changes in text complexity across time by analyzing a sample of articles from the discipline’s flagship journal during a 100-year span. Although it is not surprising that a typical political science a…
Voter response to congressional campaigns
Polls and Elections Without Rhyme or Reason? Understanding Presidential Nomination Delegate Allocation Rules
Given the prevailing two‐party system in the United States, presidential primary and caucus outcomes strongly influence the choices available to voters in presidential elections. While the Democratic Party has strong national rules on how delegates are to be awarded from primaries and caucuses, the Republican Party allows significant local discretion in crafting rules that translate primary and/or caucus outcomes into pledged delegates. This is s…
Electronic vs. Paper Voter Guides and Citizen Knowledge
Scholars are generally aware of a lack of citizen knowledge about politics in the United States. One commonly suggested remedy is the production of nonpartisan voter guides to provide voters a simple and low-cost information source to help inform voters. One of the more significant variations across states is whether the voter guide is provided in a hard-copy format or distributed on the internet. This paper explores the results of a randomized c…
Religious Identification and Legislative Voting
While religion has profound effects on political behavior in mass publics, less is known about the effect of religion on political elites. This article considers the extent to which religious identification influences the roll-call voting behavior of Mormon members of the U.S. House of Representatives. While some aspects of Mormonism make it seem like a likely case for religious influence, the literature on legislative decision making provides no…
Modeling Committee Chair Selection in the U.S. House of Representatives
For many years, committee chairs have been selected on the basis of seniority. Recent work has suggested that alternative factors, specifically financial support of party goals and party unity, have diminished the importance of seniority in committee chair selection. However, previous work has either failed to quantify these effects or has done so with inappropriate methods. This paper argues for the use of a Bayesian conditional logit estimator …
Homegrown Institutional Legitimacy
Since the United States Supreme Court's decision in Bush v. Gore, the public's support for the judicial system looms as an especially important concern. Although studies have confirmed that the Supreme Court's reservoir of public goodwill has remained largely intact following the politically divisive decision, the status of public support for other American courts has received little attention. This reflects a broader trend in judicial politics s…
Religious Identification and Legislative Voting
While religion has profound effects on political behavior in mass publics, less is known about the effect of religion on political elites. This article considers the extent to which religious identification influences the roll-call voting behavior of Mormon members of the U.S. House of Representatives. While some aspects of Mormonism make it seem like a likely case for religious influence, the literature on legislative decision making provides no…
Exchange Theory, Political Parties, and the Allocation of Federal Distributive Benefits in the House of Representatives
Many works acknowledge partisan differences in distributive benefits. Few works, however, have empirically examined the role party-building activities play in these distributions. Through Exchange Theory, we hypothesize that legislators are rewarded with distributive benefits for promoting the legislative and electoral goals of the party. Using data on party unity, member-to-member contributions, and distributive benefits, we observe these exchan…
Campaign Spending, Diminishing Marginal Returns, and Campaign Finance Restrictions in Judicial Elections
For years, scholars of elections have argued about whether campaign finance limitations adversely affect electoral competition. In this article, we examine how the institutional campaign finance restrictions differentially affect the performance of incumbents and challengers. Using elections for the state high court bench between 1990 and 2004, we demonstrate that candidate spending in judicial elections has diminishing marginal returns, but that…
Case Visibility and the Electoral Connection in State Supreme Courts
Critics traditionally portray state Supreme Court elections as low-information events that fail to accomplish the stated goal of engendering accountability to the public. Recent changes in the intensity of contestable judicial elections have led scholars to consider the effect of public opinion on state court decision making. We delineate necessary conditions for judicial responsiveness to public opinion, integrating research on state court decis…
Voter response to congressional campaigns
Judicial Independence and Opinion Clarity on State Supreme Courts
We contribute to the literature on judicial independence and performance in the states by analyzing opinion clarity. Written opinions are the primary means of communication for state supreme court justices, and clarity is a core component of judicial performance. Using automated text analysis on a sample of state supreme court opinions from all 50 states, we find that variation in judicial retention systems is not associated with substantively me…
Analyzing Text Complexity in Political Science Research
This article analyzes the text complexity of political science research. Using automated text analysis, we examine the text complexity of a sample of articles from three leading generalist journals and four leading subfield journals. We also examine changes in text complexity across time by analyzing a sample of articles from the discipline’s flagship journal during a 100-year span. Although it is not surprising that a typical political science a…
Party Identification and Vote Choice in Partisan and Nonpartisan Elections
Polls and Elections Without Rhyme or Reason? Understanding Presidential Nomination Delegate Allocation Rules
Given the prevailing two‐party system in the United States, presidential primary and caucus outcomes strongly influence the choices available to voters in presidential elections. While the Democratic Party has strong national rules on how delegates are to be awarded from primaries and caucuses, the Republican Party allows significant local discretion in crafting rules that translate primary and/or caucus outcomes into pledged delegates. This is s…
Electronic vs. Paper Voter Guides and Citizen Knowledge
Scholars are generally aware of a lack of citizen knowledge about politics in the United States. One commonly suggested remedy is the production of nonpartisan voter guides to provide voters a simple and low-cost information source to help inform voters. One of the more significant variations across states is whether the voter guide is provided in a hard-copy format or distributed on the internet. This paper explores the results of a randomized c…
Breaking Barriers
Although state prosecutors play a critically important role in the U.S. criminal justice system, these elections have received limited scholarly attention. Prosecutor elections historically have been dominated by men but have seen growing numbers of women candidates. Using data from elections between 2012 and 2020 in the 200 most populous prosecutorial districts, we assess the likelihood of a woman candidate running for the office and her chances…
Political science (12 works) · Politics (12 works) · Law (11 works) · Law (9 works) · Electoral Systems and Political Participation (8 works) · Computer Science (5 works) · Economics (5 works) · Judicial and Constitutional Studies (5 works) · Public Administration (4 works) · Public Administration (4 works)