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It is a great honor and pleasure to be elected as president of the Political Organizations and Parties (POP) section of the APSA at the recent meetings in Chicago. I think the last time I was ever elected to anything was class treasurer in high school-so my electoral career has been dormant for a few decades.

Our section focuses on some of the central actors and questions in political science, and should continue to be a vibrant source of teaching and scholarship. My primary goal as president is to work with the executive committee and the members to find ways to help the section and its members develop in both areas. The section has benefited from John Aldrich's guidance as the previous president, and the valuable and continuing contributions of John Green and VoxPOP, Holly Brasher, and the others members of the section's executive committee. Our membership has been growing, and now is approximately 600 members. Thus, if we keep on our current trajectory the section will continue to grow and develop, and this will benefit its members and the field.

There are three main issues on our agenda for the coming year. First, at APSA the POP executive committee endorsed negotiations with Sage to establish Party Politics as the official journal of the section. Aldrich and I will continue these negotiations with Sage, and hope to have a specific proposal for the section to review in the coming months. Looking beyond the journal's title, its identity closely matches the dual themes of the section. Its banner states: "An international journal for the study of political parties and political organizations." This relationship would give new voice and visibility to the section, provide a copy of the journal along with section membership, and we expect it will increase section membership. Party Politics' excellent scholarly reputation also benefits the section. If it comes to fruition, we would launch this with a special issue developed by section members. We will share news as the negotiations progress.

We were all saddened by the death of Leon Epstein, who was one of the major figures in our field. Each year POP awards the Leon Epstein Prize to the outstanding book on political organizations and parties. This year the executive committee voted to begin attaching financial awards to POP prizes. As a first step in ensuring the institutionalization of the Epstein prize and this financial award, we will undertake a modest fundraising campaign among POP members to endow the Epstein Prize. We hope you will consider donating when you receive the request letter: it is a way to recognize a distinguished scholar and colleague, and to institutionalize his legacy with a prize that will benefit future scholars. Paul Herrnson and I are developing a committee for this effort.

Third, I encourage you to visit our 'new' website:

Finally, while we still are full of energy, and the academic year is still young, I welcome your other ideas for the section. Are there other initiatives we should be undertaking? Are there ways to help section members in their professional activities? We are in a lively field of research. However, two years ago I saw a paper that argued that party research was fading away, and tried to marshal evidence to support that point. In contrast, I think there is steadily growing and increasingly sophisticated research on parties and political organizations, and the section can help foster this growth. I see some challenges in balancing the two elements of POP-political organizations and parties-but these are really complementary. There are also a growing number of comparative politics scholars joining the section, and we will work to balance our attentions to both American and comparative orientations. This is what makes our section more dynamic than others, and I look forward to helping in these efforts over my term as president.

Cordially,
Russell Dalton
UC Irvine
rdalton@uci.edu
October 2007