Nicole Dominiak

Hello,

My name is Nicole, and over the coming months, I will be researching democracy in America (and Ancient Athens) at Senator Flake’s Phoenix office. Whatever your political persuasion, I think we can all agree that:

1. It’s important that citizens play an active role in their democracy (Did you know you can contact your senators or even visit them? Probably.)
2. A lot of citizens are less active than is ideal (Have you ever sent them an email? Probably not.)

So the moral of the story is:

The thing is, taking action can be difficult, especially when it comes to politics and our busy lives. So the goal of my SRP is to figure out why this is the case (big goal) by exploring political efficacy, but I hope to narrow down my search to a specific area in the upcoming weeks.

You’re probably asking yourself why a high school student would choose to spend her time reading interpretations on the Founding Fathers’ vision for America, books on Ancient Greek history, and then spend all this effort tying these concepts back to the Arizona political system. I think the easiest answer to this is: if you’ve met me, you’ll understand. If you haven’t, I think this blog will make my odd interests apparent soon enough.

()

(The list of things that makes me happy, among other things, includes parentheses, as you've probably already noted.)

Anyways, I love politics, political theory, and philosophy. So nothing would make me happier than taking the time to focus on my own community’s system of government and how Arizona citizens relate to it. Part of this love, I believe, came from visiting my grandparents in Washington DC (quite awkwardly, my grandmother was up in arms about government surveillance after the Snowden incident, while grandfather said nothing--because he worked for the NSA). Another part of this love comes from being a person who’s attracted to stories and narrative building, which plays a less obvious but (I think) more interesting role in politics.

Ultimately, I’d like to take all I’ve learned (in school and in life), veil it slightly, and become a novelist (“pah!” my mother says). But whatever I end up doing, I am here now, and I am excited for the upcoming months. So I hope you will join me on this journey to the dark, seedy underbelly of American government, where you might discover that politicians and their staff work harder than you assumed. not all conversations happen behind locked doors, and ultimately, it’s more well-lit than you thought.

This Is What Democracy Looks Like

I feel it's fitting to end this blog with some fireworks, but before I get to the town hall. . .

I'd like to broadly summarize my research findings. 

Citizens of rural Athens were less likely to participate in their democracy because of the distance they had to travel to get to the Assembly and the time (often days) they had to stop working in order to attend. 

I've spent the past week examining voting barriers for people in rural areas, especially Native Americans living on reservations, and I've found that geography (distance and isolation) play the same role in limiting political participation that they did in ancient Athens. Difficulty accessing polling places and difficulty with the postal system (which affects mail-in ballots) were all factors that played into participation in elections. 

So although you would assume that the transition between direct democracy (as seen in Athens) to a republic (as seen in the US), would require less direct participation from citizens and therefore perhaps downplay the importance of geography and geographic barriers, we can see that geography remains just as important as ever, a point that I saw underscored last night.

Opening at the town hall, the Senator asked if anyone had traveled over 200 miles to be there. Not many people raised their hand. I'm sure there were some who had traveled from the greater Phoenix area, but they were few and far between. I certainly think holding a town hall was important, but for those who argue teletown halls are cop-outs, I would like to point out two things:

1. Arizonans can tune in regardless of their location. The only requirement is that they have a phone.

2. Teletown halls can accommodate a lot more participants (over 10,000)

Anyways, for the town hall I showed up early and helped place the Constituent Action Forms on seats and then mainly got in the way for the next hour before they opened the doors at 6 PM. I was placed on "temporary" camera duty where I remained for the rest of the night. 

For the town hall itself, most of the questions were those constituents had asked over the phone regarding healthcare, the internet bill, the Gorsuch nomination, and Planned Parenthood. There were some questions about scientific research funding that I thought were interesting. 

The basic structure of the night went like this: a constituent would (often) thank the Senator for being there and give their question. People would hold up green cards and cheer. Senator Flake would begin to respond. People would hold up red cards and drown his response out with boos. 

So. . .

Regardless of whether people changed their minds or had productive conversations, I think the town hall occupies an important place symbolically. It is a point where constituents can speak face to face with their representative and where (at least in this town hall) that representative is his own mediator. The United States is a republic that has--for better or worse--fewer contact points between citizens and the laws that govern them. The town hall was a point of direct contact, and therefore I found the last line of the evening especially fitting: 

"This is what democracy looks like."

Breaking News

Check it out: 
https://www.flake.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/town-hall

The Senate Goes Nuclear

This week, Senate Republicans voted to end the filibuster, Gorsuch will very likely have been confirmed by the time you read this, constituents are threatening me on both sides about the internet bill (SJ Res 34), and people still don't seem to care about foreign affairs unless Putin is mentioned.

In terms of my research, I've spent this week looking at voter statistics. For the last ten years (with the exception of 2014), the voter turnout for Apache County has been between 10-20% lower than that of Maricopa County. Additionally, two-thirds of those living in Apache County are members of the Navajo Nation, so I think that is the group I will focus on for my research. Focusing on a single tribe has helped me to single out specific statistics related to income, poverty rates, urban vs. rural living, and voting patterns. One thing I found interesting about the Navajo Nation was the significant number of its members under the age of 18 (I believe it is something like 30%).

In the upcoming week, I hope to finalize my research on ancient Athens and look more into rural voting patterns in the United States as a whole, as well as the factors that cause these patterns and hinder/lead to increased turnout. I am still debating whether to include a solution in my presentation because that would seem to be a monumental task, but at the same time, at this point, I feeling I am merely compiling information from different areas without contributing.

I'll let the research sit for a while, though. Last Friday night, I attended the Legislative Salute dinner, which included a certain Governor Ducey making jokes about state congresspeople who I didn't know.

But otherwise, it was nice!

I spent my Sunday at Pride (and wasted $20 on a ticket to the festival, where you essentially paid to enter a place where the normal price of any item was doubled--see the $7 pretzel). But I got a big flag and lots of free stuff, so I guess I didn't mind in the end. 

I'll close with a list of my four biggest pet peeves related to office calls:

1. When a person calls to say "I like Flake. He's a good guy, but John McCain really. . ." (the ellipses represent the 10 minutes I spend listening that person complain about another senator)

2. When people accuse me of lying about the call-log. 

Me: Ma'am, we log every call and the Senator looks over that log every night.

Them: I doubt that.

Me: [Awkwardly staring at call-log.]

Them: You still there? 

3. When people tell me the United States is becoming a third world country. (Thinks of Haiti. Thinks of United States. Sighs heavily for the ignorance of our nation.)

4. When people call to complain about Representative Flak. I don't know who Mr. Flak is. Please stop calling about him because this is not his office. 

I'm Going to Try Being Serious for a Week

This week on the Senate menu: constituents are calling from both sides about the nomination of Neil Gorsuch (and to oppose joke-telling of any kind during SCOTUS-hearings), and people are calling from mainly one side regarding the recent internet bill. Friday, I was invited to attend the Legislative Salute dinner. The invitation from two years ago looks exactly like this year’s invitation with a changed date and location.

But let’s get into the nitty-gritty with this post. My close to final research question is: How does living in a rural county affect the voter turnout of Native Americans in Arizona, particularly those living in Apache County?

For my final presentation, I’ll begin with a historic look at democracy by discussing rural Athenians, those who were citizens of Athens but lived outside the physical city wall. According to Nicholas F. Jones in his book Rural Athens Under the Democracy, though Athenian culture and society is often homogenized, rural Athens experienced a distinct culture that distanced it from its urban counterpart and resulted in a feeling of otherness and hostility. I’m still looking for sources that analyze voting patterns and political participation in rural Athens. 

From there I will transition to how these social and cultural divides linger today in the state of Arizona. I will address the differences in population, environment, and form of government between Athens and the modern United States. Then I will move into my research regarding Apache County, which will largely involve analyzing the voter-turnout statistics over the last ten years. I will supplement this with research regarding Native American political participation in the United States at large, and I think I’ll speak to the staffer in our office who is in charge of outreach to Apache County. Additionally, if the statistics are available, I will compare turnout rates in federal elections to tribal elections. 

The difficulties I foresee are related to the problems faced by Apache County itself. Historically, you are more likely to vote the wealthier and more educated you are. According to the US Census Bureau, 38% of people in Apache County live in poverty, and only 10.8%  of people over 25 hold a Bachelors or higher degree, compared to the national average of 30.4%. The result is, because these factors are so entangled, it will be difficult to conclude that voters in Apache County have low political efficacy as a result of living outside major population centers, not receiving the attention of political candidates, or having difficulty accessing polling places.

I normally try to avoid dry posts, but as we are approaching the end of the SRP season, I felt it was necessary. I am not incredibly worried about losing access to my site in the next two weeks because my internship continues until May 5^th, so I have plenty of time to continue speaking with staffers. Anyways, if you have questions, post them below. If your question is complicated, you can always call your senator at: (602) 840-1891

Or you can visit me at the Subway off of the 101 if you’re very desperate. 

1300 Calls in One Day

I think it’s odd that I have this picture on my camera, and within less than two weeks, there’s this picture on the news:

The world moves so fast, and I suppose it’s so large it makes sense that there are a million different things happening, but it seems to strange that when certain events happen, the world doesn’t just stop.

               

I know I’m fast-approaching the end of my project, and I should attempt to reign myself in from the tangents. But I’m not going to. This week I was watching a talk-show host's segment “Ain’t Nobody Got Time for That” where he speeds through as many news stories as possible, asking questions and leaving them unanswered because ain’t nobody got time for that. And of course it’s funny, but it reminded me of something that had piqued my interest my first few weeks at the Senator’s, and that is: the lifespan of issues. 

As you can imagine, from my experience at the office, most issues have a shelf-life of about two weeks. Certain extremely important ones with a high-level impact (healthcare) will result in people calling in longer. But most calls concern what is in the headlines.

I don’t mind people calling about headline issues, but I do wish they would call about other ones as well. It does make you realize, though, how effective a single ad can be at encouraging people to call (though not necessarily at ensuring that they know what they’re calling about; I’ve had multiple people this week tell me that if the Senator voted for the Affordable Care Act, they would never vote for him again).

That’s my tangent. The office is becoming a flood-zone again. Before 3 PM on Wednesday, when the power went out (yup, for the whole block) we had received about 400 calls, most of them about healthcare.

Between phone calls, I am currently working on a spreadsheet of the largest local businesses in the Arizona counties. While some have beautiful websites that list the largest employers and important businesses that have made the county their home, others have nothing. I wonder if this is a difference in funding, a difficulty of consolidating information, or some other factor.

(Apache: http://www.co.apache.az.us/

Maricopa: https://www.maricopa.gov/)

In terms of project developments, to narrow my scope further and because I seem to have an affinity for Apache County, I think I will look at how living in a rural area affects the political efficacy of Native Americans in Arizona. For my data, if I can find it, I think I might compare the voting patterns of Native Americans in Apache County with those in Phoenix. I think the largest challenge here will be taking the many tribes that we have here in Arizona, and consolidating them in a way that keeps my research manageable without erasing the distinction between groups.

AHHHHHH(CA)!

Last week I found out that spring springs even in rainy, old Oxford. And that cacti can be found growing in various gardens across the University, where they remain year-round for homesick Arizona students. Odd.

Also, I got to visit John Keats’s house! I think I mentioned this before on this blog, but I love Keats. You can tell by my dopey smile in the photo below, and by the fact that I dragged my family out of the London city center to see his house.

Anyways, it was a nice break and helped me prepare for the UTTER CHAOS I RETURNED TO ON MONDAY. Coming up on the roster is the Republican plan to repeal and replace Obamacare. This week in the office, Mexican grey wolves and Betsy DeVos have fallen to the sidelines, and about every person who calls has this to say:

(This is a picture of my office chair: 

looking deceptively relaxed and nonchalant despite the country's state of chaos.)

Quite strangely, I had spent the summer researching healthcare policy (primarily Medicaid in Kansas, but still). My summer research enabled me to see the point of view of primarily state governments, so it was interesting this month to hear directly from constituents.

But of course people have other concerns (anyone know how to convert Iraqi dinar into US dollars?) One call (that seemed planted by the Senior Project Gods) was a request to repair the roads in a rural town outside of Tucson. I was told that businesses are being harmed by the fact that no one passes through because the roads are so bad.

And I thought to myself: infrastructure! About two weeks ago, I met with my faculty advisor and we agreed it would be interesting to compare political efficacy/participation in the more rural areas outside of ancient Athens with the rural areas lacking infrastructure in our own state of Arizona.

This would clearly be a turn away from focusing on information and voter ignorance, but in doing some research I read an interesting article where authors argued that with a decision like voting, it isn’t necessary to know everything and less information than one might expect can be used to get by. This article pushed me away from a focus on ignorance and led me back to essentially where I started with this blog: infrastructure. 

These are my blog-y thoughts, and feel free to leave your own in the comments below.