Persily On Implications of S. Carolina Primary
COLUMBIA LAW EXPERT ON AMERICAN POLITICS CAN DISCUSS IMPLICATIONS OF SOUTH CAROLINA’S DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY
Press contact:
James O’Neill 212-854-1584 Cell: 646-596-2935
January 22, 2008 (NEW YORK) – Columbia Law School Professor Nathaniel Persily, an expert on American politics and election law, is available to speak with reporters about the implications of this Saturday’s Democratic primary in South Carolina.
Do people lie to pollsters? Persily said the South Carolina contest will help provide better insight into whether white respondents lie about their support for Barack Obama in the wake of the New Hampshire primary’s polling debacle. The South Carolina contest could also foreshadow Obama’s chances in other Southern states, he said.
Nathaniel Persily, Professor of Law, can be reached on his cell at 917-570-3223 or at [email protected].
PERSILY: ``The South Carolina primary is not only important in selecting the Democratic nominee, it is also important in revealing the fundamental dynamics of public opinion toward each of these candidates,’’ Persily said. ``In this, the first primary following the New Hampshire polling debacle, we will be better able to see whether, in fact, white respondents tend to lie to pollsters about their support for Obama.
``In addition, if Obama is able to mobilize and win the African American vote handily, then it might portend for greater number of victories throughout the South,’’ Persily said.
Nathaniel Persily, an expert on voting rights, election law, constitutional law, and American politics, has been a court-appointed expert for redistricting cases in Georgia, Maryland and New York, and has served as an expert witness or outside counsel in similar cases in California and Florida. He has an upcoming book on the Supreme Court.
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