USNA News Article

Naval Academy Professor Receives Award for Research on Presidential Fundraising

July 11, 2012

By MC2 Alexia Riveracorrea

Naval Academy political science Professor Brendan Doherty was recognized recently as the 2012 recipient of the “Founders Award for the Best Paper by a Ph.D.-Holding Scholar” from the Presidents and Executive Politics section of the American Political Science Association.

Doherty received the award for a paper he wrote on presidential party building efforts, which he presented at the annual APSA conference in Seattle in September 2011.

“I am thrilled and humbled to be selected for this award,” said Doherty. “Being selected by fellow political scientists from across the country who study the presidency is a particular honor.”

His paper, entitled “The President As Party-Builder-In-Chief: Presidential Fundraising, 1977-2011,” drew on new data to analyze the beneficiaries of presidential fundraising efforts in an effort to shed light on the president's evolving role as party-builder-in-chief.

“I find that the overwhelming majority of presidential fundraising is done not for the president’s own reelection campaign but for his co-partisans,” said Doherty. “The beneficiaries of presidential fundraising have varied over time, revealing where presidents place their political chips and how they see their role as party-builder-in-chief. The dynamics analyzed in the paper challenge some long-held beliefs about the nature of the president’s relationship to his party.”

Doherty joined the Naval Academy as an assistant professor of political science in 2007 and was promoted to associate professor earlier this year. He teaches courses on the presidency, congress, campaigns and elections, and American politics. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Doherty has achieved national acclaim for his expertise in presidential elections, being quoted by the New York Times, the Atlantic and many other national media outlets. His published work has examined presidential travel and fundraising, the Electoral College, Senate leadership, speech restrictions in judicial campaigns, the Marshall court and federalism, the political participation of dual citizens, and the targeting of Spanish-speaking voters in presidential elections.

“My research enlivens my teaching, as I regularly share my own scholarship with the midshipmen in my class, whom I ask to conduct original research of their own,” he said. “Discussing my research with the midshipmen I teach helps me to show the mids how my research and theirs can shed new light on important political phenomena.”