This page is no longer being updated and remains online for informational and historical purposes only. The information is accurate as of the last page update.
For questions about page contents, contact the Communications Division.
John Kincaid, Robert B. and Helen S. Meyner Professor of Government and Public Service and director of Lafayette’s Meyner Center for the Study of State and Local Government, was quoted in Saturday’s New York Times.
An excerpt of the article, “In Races for Governor, Party May Be Secondary,” follows:
A few of this year’s 36 governors’ races have been buffeted by the fierce winds blowing out of Washington over the question of which party will control Congress. But many more have been focused on the traditional state-centered issues that have little to do with party: personal popularity, the local economy, education and the environment.
Though Democratic candidates are expected to fare better than Republicans, political scholars and party strategists all over the country say the governors’ races are often out of sync with the broader national trends.
The select club of 50 governors is an increasingly potent force, set apart in the nation’s political system, many scholars say, and moving to its own rhythms outside the thrum of partisan Washington combat. As the two major national parties have become more ideologically separated and locked in their positions, the governors — who must continually compromise and moderate their positions — are less constrained by the party labels that come after their names.
“The tensions get aggravated because you have such a conservative Congress, and most governors are not that conservative — they’re pragmatic,” said John Kincaid, a professor of government and public service at Lafayette College in Easton, Pa. “So even if a Republican governor won’t necessarily oppose the president, he will go the other way.”
Kincaid is senior editor for a series of volumes on comparative federalism and served as co-editor of the first book, Constitutional Origins, Structure, and Change in Federal Countries, published in 2005. A second volume, Distribution of Powers and Responsibilities in Federal Countries, came out in January.
He was named Distinguished Federalism Scholar in 2001 by the American Political Science Association, recognizing his outstanding contributions to the study of federalism and intergovernmental relations. The association is the major professional society for American political scientists.
President of the International Association of Centers for Federal Studies from 1998-2005, Kincaid has lectured and consulted on issues of federalism, intergovernmental relations, constitutionalism, and regional and local governance in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom.
He is the author of various works on federalism and intergovernmental relations, served as editor of Publius: The Journal of Federalism from 1981-2005 – a quarterly scholarly journal with a worldwide readership – and editor of a 50-book series, Governments and Politics of the American States.
Kincaid served as executive director of the bipartisan U.S. Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations in Washington, D.C., from 1987-94, when he joined the Lafayette faculty. He is an elected fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.