Born and raised in Michigan. I enjoyed my high school years in Three Rivers, Michigan. Then I moved to Big Rapids to attend Ferris State College. There I met my wife, Lisa, and graduated after 3 years with a business degree. We then traveled 50 miles east to Mount Pleasant where I attended Central Michigan University. At Central, I pursued two Masters degrees – a MBA and MA in Economics.

Still ambitious, I applied to and was accepted at Washington University in St. Louis where I obtained a PhD in political science. Admittedly a circuitous pathway to the PhD, I certainly learned a lot along the way.

In 1996, I was offered a position at the University of Kansas and we moved – with our two boys that were born in St. Louis – several months later.

I started consider the politics during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic. It offered a channel for my thoughts. The blog in fact helped me consider many of the vast changes experienced during that unprecedented period in American politics.

Now during the 2024 presidential race, I hope to post weekly. A fairly short piece dealing with some aspect of the election and a graph of the week – a figure that tells an interesting story about political change and the potential consequences.

Feel free to contact me.