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APSA Nominating Committee Report
2009 Statement of Miles Kahler, Committee Chair

The Nominating Committee submits the following report, which documents its selection of the 2009 slate of candidates for positions in the American Political Science Association.

The members of the 2008 Nominating Committee were Amrita Basu, Amherst College;  Lisa Garcia Bedolla, University of California, Berkeley; Peter A. Hall, Harvard University; Miles Kahler, University of California, San Diego, chair; K. C. Morrison, University of Missouri, Columbia; and H. W. Perry, Jr., University of Texas, Austin.   The Committee was marked by careful deliberation and collegiality; its final decisions a consensus of all members.

Nominations for open Executive Officer and Council positions that had been made by individual members of the Association and by organized groups provided a starting point for the Committee’s work.  Nomination forms were published in the October 2008 issue of PS, and a call for nominations was also posted online.  Nominations from the membership closed on January 9, 2009.  

Committee members began their consideration of these nominations well in advance of the Nominating Committee meeting.  The Association staff compiled supporting materials on each nominee in order to facilitate the Committee’s deliberations.  Members of the Nominating Committee also proposed candidates; by previous agreement, no candidates could be proposed at the Committee meeting unless all Committee members agreed and sufficient information was available for the proposed candidate.  In its efforts to consider the widest spectrum of candidates, the Committee also considered those members of the Association who had been considered for elected positions in the past four years.  

The Committee met for selection of its slate of candidates in Washington D.C., beginning with a dinner meeting on February 20, 2009 and continuing through the next day. During this meeting there was a full discussion of nominees, including additional candidates identified in the course of the meeting.  We utilized the Association's extensive database to obtain supplementary information on all prospective candidates.  Throughout, the Committee maintained the confidential nature of its discussions and communications.

In developing the final slate of proposed candidates, the Committee was guided by the Association's by-laws, which require "due regard to diversity, geographical distribution, fields of professional interest, type of institution, and academic/nonacademic employment status."  The President’s charge to the Committee also noted the particular importance of recognizing members who teach at non-PhD granting institutions, underscored by a 2004 Council statement.  Two other groups were of particular concern:  members outside the United States and those working in non-academic positions.  The Committee also took note of the 2001 Council resolution that that Association should not nominate candidates for President of the same gender for more than two consecutive years.

The slate that the Committee offers is consistent with these goals. The Committee has nominated individuals whose accomplishments in scholarship and teaching are of the highest order and who have provided essential public goods that insure the success of both the Association and the profession.   The nominees also faithfully reflect our diverse membership and its multiple fields of specialization, contending methodological approaches, types of institution, and individual identities.  We endorse this slate with the greatest enthusiasm and urge its election by fellow members of the Association.

The Committee records its gratitude to Executive Director Michael
Brintnall and to the Association’s staff, especially Hayle Ziobro, for their invaluable contributions to its work.