The following survey is requested as part of a study that looks at how campaigns make decisions about strategy and tactics, shaping candidates’ images and message development, among other concerns. The purpose is to effectively incorporate campaign practitioners’ voices and experiences into academic scholarship on electoral campaigns. Findings will be part of my dissertation project at Rutgers University.
Approximately 1000 top-tier political consultants active in campaigns throughout the country will be asked to participate in this survey about your experiences and considerations in campaign consulting. It should only take about 20 minutes of your time and does not require further participation. While I am unable to compensate you for participating, I will be happy to send you a statistical summary of consultants’ views upon completion of the project.
As with all surveys your participation is voluntary. You may choose not to participate, and you may end the survey at any time or choose not to answer questions with which you are uncomfortable without any penalty to you. There are no foreseeable risks to participating in this study. All of your answers will be held in strictest confidence. This means that I will not share your answers with anyone, and will not store the names or addresses of respondents in the same data file as where answers to the questionnaire are located. The Institutional Review Board at Rutgers wants me to remind you that nothing traveling over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100 percent confidential—there is always the possibility that an outside party (such as a computer hacker) may be able to gain access to your information. If you are worried about this, it will be best if you complete the survey on a private computer to protect your privacy. Additionally, you should be sure to always completely close your browser (or log-off the survey area) after completing the survey.
The research team and the Institutional Review Board at Rutgers University are the only parties that will be allowed to see the data, except as may be required by law. If a report of this study is published, or the results are presented at a professional conference, only group results will be stated, unless you have agreed otherwise.
Please feel free to contact me or Dr. Kira Sanbonmatsu (project advisor) if you have any questions or concerns in advance of taking the survey.
Kelly Dittmar
Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science and Research Assistant
Eagleton Institute of Politics
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
191 Ryders Lane
New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901
kdittmar@rci.rutgers.edu
(630) 730-7399
Kira Sanbonmatsu, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Political Science and Senior Scholar
Eagleton Institute of Politics
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
191 Ryders Lane
New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901
sanbon@rci.rutgers.edu
(732) 932-9384 x 265
This informed consent form was approved by the Rutgers University Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects on March 7, 2010; approval of this form expires on September 27, 2010.