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“I’ve worked on political campaigns as long as I can remember,” says Jennifer Conway ’03 (Pepperell, Mass.) who, at age six, tagged along with her father as he helped Steven C. Panagiotakos (D- Lowell) in the Massachusetts Senatorial campaign. Conway has also worked as a legislative intern and administrative assistant for Panagiotakos, as a legislative aide for Mass. Senator Kevin Murphy (D-Lowell), and as a constituent services intern for U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.).
Conway added a new dimension to her political experience this year as she explored the effects of campaign contributions and finance reform on U.S. presidential primaries.
The student says she wanted to see “whether a model could accurately predict a candidate’s future based on candidate attributes and early money receipts.” The results of her research show that after the first three months of campaigning, the model can predict over 80% of the total funds each presidential hopeful will have by the date of the New Hampshire primary.
“This study gives some numerical validity to the belief that early money is vital to a presidential campaign,” Conway says.
“I found that political party was not statistically significant; in other words, being a member of a particular party does not significantly impact a candidate’s success,” she explains. “African American candidates were also at a slight advantage over their Caucasian equivalents, which I found to be very interesting.”
Conway says the model was, in fact, designed to compare African American candidates to Caucasian candidates who were similar in all other aspects included in the model besides race.
A double major in economics & business and government & law, Conway conducted the intensive research in pursuit of departmental honors in both subjects. Alexandra Cooper, assistant professor of government and law, is acting as Conway’s primary thesis adviser. Christopher Ruebeck, assistant professor of economics and business, is Conway’s adviser in that discipline.
An expert on campaign finance, Cooper received a $74,286 grant from the National Science Foundation to study the role of campaign contributions in elections in the United States. She has involved numerous Lafayette students in her research.
Ruebeck, an active scholar in his field, has presented his research over the past year to the European Association for Research in Industrial Economics, Madrid, Spain; North American Winter Meeting of the Econometric Society, Washington, D.C.; Stony Brook Summer Festival on Game Theory; and Lehigh University. He also published an article in The Economic and Social Review this spring and has an article forthcoming in The Southern Economic Journal.
“I focused on the pre-primary phase to examine the impact donations have on candidates’ later success,” Conway says, adding that she also researched the effect of the recent increase in the amount individuals may donate to U.S. Presidential and Congressional campaigns from $1,000 to $2,000. “As a double major, this topic combines the two subject areas that interest me the most. I’ve done some research in the past dealing with presidential elections, but nothing in this capacity. This is an area of political science where I feel there is much to be learned.”
Ruebeck says Conway’s work gets to the root of what economics is all about: “human behavior and the effect of incentives.”
“This is a great topic from an economist’s point of view,” he says, explaining that Conway based the quantitative analysis of her research on econometric techniques that aren’t frequently used by political scientists. “She did well. She had the willingness to consider the issues in both disciplines and the interest to put the two things together.”
“She’s very bright and she has taken a lot of initiative in applying her knowledge,” adds Cooper.
Conway, who began her research by reading “every book I could find on financing presidential elections,” says the professors did much to help her reach her goal.
“They are both highly qualified and encouraging of my work, and I enjoyed working with them throughout the year,” she says. “I think Lafayette fosters a very positive and unique academic environment for this kind of work. There are very few academic institutions where it is possible to work so closely with professors at the undergraduate level.”
Conway serves as treasurer of the Internet company National College Search. She interned last spring for Russell, Jones, & Walker, Solicitors, in London and shadowed the regional vice president in charge of municipal accounts in the governmental accounting division of Fleet Bank in January 2000.
On campus, she serves as a peer tutor in economics and writing associate. She is a member of Kirby Government & Law Society; Pi Sigma Alpha, the national political science honor society; and Omicron Delta Epsilon, the national economics honor society. She has served as an orientation leader for the past two years.