For about a quarter of a century, Spokane native Janine Parry directed a public opinion poll that was eagerly anticipated by Arkansans. She was a political science professor at the University of Arkansas.
Janine Parry: We were trying to facilitate a conversation between the people who were doing the electing and the people who were elected about sort of beyond elections a little bit more about what is it that people want, what is it that they care about. And so we would be on the phone about 18 to 20 minutes every October with 750 to 800 Arkansans.
One of Parry's research interests was state legislatures and governments where one party holds an overwhelming advantage.
Janine Parry: Candidates instead are running to the ends to try to out-Republican or out-Democrat somebody else in a primary election. And then they all go to the legislature and there are super majorities of them there and they all hold hands and give people policies that help them respond to their funders and to each other so they can get in leadership roles and perhaps make a mark so they can go up into Congress, right, if we're talking about state legislatures. So they shore up their party credentials, but they get farther and farther away from the center of public opinion. So extreme policy, extremism is one of the consequences.
