Dr. Paul S. Herrnson

Director, Center for American Politics and Citizenship
Professor, Government and Politics, University of Maryland

Paul S. Herrnson (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1986) is Director of the Center for American Politics and Citizenship and a Professor in the Department of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland, College Park. Herrnson is the principal investigator of the National Science Foundation-funded "Assessment of Voting Technology and Ballot Design." Herrnson previously served as principal investigator on The Pew Charitable Trusts-funded "Campaign Assessment and Candidate Outreach Project."

Dr. Herrnson is the author of Party Campaigning in the 1980s (Harvard, 1988), Congressional Elections: Campaigning at Home and in Washington, 4th ed. (CQ Press, 2004), and The Financiers of Congressional Elections (Columbia, 2004). He is co-editor of several volumes, including After the Revolution: PACs, Lobbies, and the Republican Congress (Allyn & Bacon, 1998), The Interest Group Connection: Electioneering, Lobbying, and Policymaking in Washington (CQ Press, 2005), Playing Hardball: Campaigning for the U.S. Congress (Prentice Hall, 2000), Multiparty Politics in America, 2nd ed. (Rowman and Littlefield, 2002), Responsible Partisanship? The Evolution of American Political Parties in the Post-War Era, (Kansas, 2003) and War Stories From Capitol Hill (Prentice Hall, 2003). He edits the book series Real Politics in America for Prentice Hall. He also has written numerous articles on Congress, campaign finance, political parties, elections, and campaign ethics.

Herrnson has served as an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow and has received several teaching awards, including an Excellence in Teaching Award from the University of Maryland. He was named a Distinguished Scholar-Teacher by the University of Maryland in 2005. He has advised the U.S. Congress, the Maryland General Assembly, the Federal Election Commission, and the State of Maryland Commission to Revise the Election Code on matters pertaining to campaign finance and political parties. Herrnson's current interests include political parties and elections, interest groups, campaign finance, and voting technology and ballot design.