For Immediate Release
November 6, 2000

South Hadley, MA—The 2000 presidential election is proving to be one of the closest races since 1960. The election’s results will be known on November 7; six days later Mount Holyoke College will convene a panel discussion on the outcome and its implications. Throughout the fall campaign, the Harriet L. and Paul M. Weissman Center for Leadership at Mount Holyoke has investigated our American democracy through three prior events, which have been free and open to the public. Titled American Democracy in Crisis? Money, Politics, and Civic Participation, the series will close with a final panel discussion, "Elections 2000: Implications for American Democracy," Monday, November 13, at 7:30 PM in Gamble Auditorium at Mount Holyoke College.

Moderated by Christopher Pyle, professor of politics at Mount Holyoke, the panel discussion will feature Theodore J. Lowi, a leading political scientist; Ellen Story, state representative for Massachusetts; and Sean Wilentz, a noted American historian who served as an expert witness during the Clinton impeachment hearings.

In addition to offering their own views on the election’s outcome, the panelists will discuss any evidence regarding major shifts in public opinions and party alignments that might have significance for future elections; the reasons for low voter turnout; what the recent election tells us about the nature of American political leadership in the 21^st century; and what impact the impeachment and trial of President Clinton has had on the elections.

The panel, composed of nationally recognized practitioners and experts, includes:

• Theodore J. Lowi, John L. Senior Professor of American Institutions at Cornell University, is well known for his books, which include The End of Liberalism: The Second Republic of the United States, The End of the Republican Era, and Embattled Democracy: Politics and Policy in the Clinton Era(coauthored with Benjamin Ginsberg). Mr. Lowi served as president of the International Political Science Association from 1997-2000, and received the Outstanding Mentor of Women in Political Science Award in 1996.
• Ellen Story, a Democrat, represents the towns of Amherst, Pelham, and Shutesbury, Massachusetts. The first woman to represent her district, Ms. Story has served in the legislature since 1992. Her priorities include education (especially public higher education), affordable health care (including mental health care), union-related issues, and welfare reform.
• Sean Wilentz, Dayton-Stockton Professor of History and director of the Program in American Studies at Princeton University, is a contributing editor and a frequent contributor to The New Republicand publishes widely in popular and scholarly journals. He is the author of Chants Democratic: New York City and the Rise of the American Working Class, 1788-1850,which won the Frederick Jackson Turner Award and the Albert J. Beveridge Award, and The Kingdom of Matthias: A Story of Sex and Salvation in 19^th-Century America(coauthored with Paul E. Johnson). He also provided expert testimony during the Clinton impeachment hearings.

The Harriet L. and Paul M. Weissman Center for Leadership was established in 1999 to prepare students to engage in the public arena as critical thinkers in all realms of public life, intellectual exchange, and artistic expression.

For more information on the Weissman Center for Leadership at Mount Holyoke College, please visit the center’s Web page at www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/programs/cla.