Summary: The 2012 presidential election was filled with drama from beginning to end. The race in Florida was the most competitive in the nation, with President Obama defeating Gov. Romney by just 74,309 votes (less than 1%) of the over 8 million votes cast. The Sunshine State was often at the center of controversies surrounding the GOP presidential debates, the national party conventions, the presidential debates, early voting, and last minute Get-Out-The-Vote efforts by both parties. Florida’s experiences in 2012 have sparked national debates over the pragmatism of televised presidential primary debates, the timing and location of national party conventions, presidential debate formats and moderator selection, the over-saturation and negative tone of TV ads, voter databases (privacy and cost issues) and the emerging generational divide in American politics. Dr. Susan A. MacManus, who received her M.A. from the University of Michigan and Ph.D. from Florida State University, is Distinguished Professor of Public Administration and Political Science in the Department of Government and International Affairs at the University of South Florida (USF). For the last five election cycles, she has served as political analyst for WFLA-TV (Tampa NBC affiliate) and the state’s leading station. She was a blogger for TBO.com during the 2004 and 2006 election campaigns. She served as Chair of the Florida Elections Commission from 1999 to 2003 and helped the Collins Center For Public Policy, Inc., draft Florida’s Help America Vote Act state plan (voter, election official, and poll worker education section) required by Congress to qualify for federal funding under the Help America Vote Act. She also served as an advisor to the Florida Division of Elections on the development of its statewide poll-worker training manual. In 2008, MacManus was appointed by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission to two working groups: the Election Management Guidelines Development Working Group on Elderly and Disabled Voters in Long-Term Care Facilities and the Working Group on Media and Public Relations. MacManus was a Fulbright Research Scholar at Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea, in 1989, received USF’s Distinguished Research Scholar Award in 1991, was honored as the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society’s USF Artist/Scholar in 1997 and was designated as a Distinguished University Professor in 1999. She received the first biennial Diane Blair award for “Outstanding Achievement in Politics and Government” from the Southern Political Science Association in 2001. In March, 2002, the Florida Political Science Association gave her its Manning Dauer Distinguished Florida Political Science Award. She has been a Reubin O’D. Askew Fellow of the Florida Institute of Government since 1995. Susan is the author and co-author of many books on politics and Florida history. She is a member of a citrus-growing family in Pasco County and is unaffiliated with any political party.
