INSIDE
The truth behind portion control
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Students weigh in on candidates
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Men’s soccer wins senior night
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TV shows for your inner politician
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MONDay
NOVEMBER 3, 2014 monday High 78, Low 64 Tuesday High 69, Low 52
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NEWS Briefs World BUCHAREST, Romania — Exit polls in Romania suggest that center-left prime minister will face a city mayor in a runoff of a presidential election after no candidate secured a majority in Sunday’s voting. BAGHDAD — Islamic State group extremists lined up and shot dead at least 50 Iraqi men, women and children from the same tribe on Sunday, officials said, in the latest targeting of the group by militants.
National LOS ANGELES— Police have made multiple arrests in connection with the Halloween hitand-run deaths of three teenage girls who were out trickor-treating in a Los Angeles suburb, authorities said Sunday. BODEGA BAY, Calif. — A large wave capsized a fishing boat off the coast of Northern California Saturday, leaving four of the five people aboard dead, authorities said. None of those aboard was wearing the life vests that were aboard the craft when they went into water.
Texas FORT WORTH — Jimmie Johnson won his third consecutive Texas fall race Sunday, when none of the eight championship contenders were able to clinch one of the final four spots in NASCAR’s Chase for the Sprint Cup championship. LUBBOCK — A police officer in rural West Texas is one of two people killed in a head-on collision. Jeremy Shedd of the Brownfield Police Department southwest of Lubbock was killed Sunday morning as he was driving home from work.
Courtesy of AP
Courtesy of AP
Democratic candidate Wendy Davis (left) and Republican candidate Greg Abbott (right) are the frontrunners in the Texas governor’s race that will take place Tuesday.
Election Day in Texas arrives Tuesday Mallory paul Contributing Writer mmpaul@smu.edu Texas will vote for a new governor Tuesday. On the ballot are Republican candidate Greg Abbott, Democrat Wendy Davis, Libertarian Kathie Glass and Green Party candidate Brandon Parmer. But the race is primarily between the candidates from the two major parties: Davis and Abbott. Issues they are debating include health care, voter IDs and education. But will SMU students vote? Some political experts say maybe not. “Mostly, young people will not vote at all,” SMU political science professor Cal Jillson said. “The propensity to vote increases with age. That’s why campaigns are about Social Security rather than the cost of college.”
campaign attacks abbott Davis accused Abbott of profiting off his accident that left him partially paralyzed and then called him a hypocrite for denying funds to other victims of accidents as Attorney General.
DAVIS Abbott has equated Davis with President Obama saying that if she is elected it would be the same as having the president serve as Texas governor. Courtesy of Abbott and Davis campaign ads About 50 percent of SMU students are from out of state. Unless they have established residency in Texas, those students won’t be able to participate in the election. “I don’t live here so I don’t really care about it that much, but I’m sure that it’s important
because Texas is a pretty big state,” said Graham Lumley, a sophomore marketing major and a Missouri native. Young voters tend to be more democratic and liberal on social issues like gay marriage and the legal use of marijuana, according to an April 2014 article published
government
in The New Republic. For example, in 2012, 60 percent of people ages 18 to 29 voted for President Barack Obama. Republican incumbent Gov. Rick Perry, the state’s longest serving governor, chose not to run again, making this race one of most competitive Texas has
seen since George W. Bush beat Ann Richards in 1994. However, Abbott has been leading in the polls and has more funding, placing him as the projected winner. Despite the attention the race has attracted, many students feel disconnected with the race and the issues. Cameron Buller, who lives in Fort Worth and is a junior mathematics and mechanical engineer double major, said he wasn’t even aware the race was going on. “I have so much other stuff going on with school,” Buller said. The College Republicans and College Democrats organizations both have chapters at SMU. Officials with the College Democrats say they have not scheduled an official watch party for Tuesday, but will instead
GOVERNOR page 3
ELECTION
Attacks, negative ads in the Texas Governor’s Race courtney cox Photo Editor cecox@smu.edu
Courtesy of dallasda.com
District Attorney Craig Watkins was inaugurated in January 2007.
Will Hawk unseat Watkins ? rebekah tate Contributing Writer rtate@smu.edu The District Attorney’s contest is one of the most anticipated matchups on the Dallas County Ballot. Republican nominee Susan Hawk is trying to unseat two-term District Attorney Craig Watkins. Watkins was inaugurated in January 2007. He was the first African-American in Texas elected to the position. He touts a 99.4 percent felony conviction rate and is most known for his partnership with the Innocence Project of Texas. “The Innocence Project is a commendable effort to review and re-open cases in which the defendant has strong claims of innocence,” said Rick Halperin, director of
SMU’s Embrey Human Rights Program. “Dallas County leads the entire nation in the release of innocent and wrongfully convicted individuals.” Despite widespread recognition for the success of the Innocence Project, Hawk has encouraged voters to look beyond this one accomplishment. “However commendable this project is, it is not a sufficient reason to re-elect Mr. Watkins,” Halperin added. “People need to look at his complete record and decide if he is the best choice.” On the other side, Hawk is a former felony prosecutor and has been a criminal court judge for the past two decades. Throughout her campaign, she has continually touted Watkins as inexperienced. “Watkins points out, I have
DA page 3
This has been an unfriendly election filled with negative ads, but Abbott has always had and currently has a large lead. “A tree fell on Greg Abbott. He sued and got millions. Since then he’s spent his career working against other victims.” Wendy Davis’ “Wheelchair Ad” has been getting a lot of attention as the Texas gubernatorial election comes to a close. Negative advertising has been a large component of this election, but did it work? People would assume that negative ads result in votes for the candidate who airs them, but that’s not true in many cases. Negative ads actually work by suppressing votes for the candidate the ad is about, instead of increasing votes for the candidate who put out the ad.
Researchers and psychologists say there is evidence that negative ads work because they influence the subconscious minds of many voters. Steve Edwards, SMU advertising professor, said that negative advertising works on a couple of levels for some practical reasons. First, negative information is considered to be more diagnostic than positive information. People tend to avoid risk-taking, and negative information helps us avoid risks. Therefore, people learn from experience that negative information is more valuable than positive information. Second, research shows that memory for negative information fades slower than the source of that information. What this means in politics is that audiences will hear something negative about a candidate and immediately discount it as biased. They think, “of course
the candidate’s opponent will say negative things.” However, over time audiences forget the source of the information and remember the negative statement. Therefore, when they try to recall their attitudes about the candidate, they remember only the negative information and not the fact that they thought the information was biased. A survey of about 30 SMU students, built on SurveyMonkey concluded that 20 out of the 30 identify as Republican. About half hadn’t seen Abbott’s or Davis’ negative political ads. Also, more students claimed to like the candidate who put out the negative ad less than the candidate the negative ad is about. Elena Politiski is one of the many students who hasn’t seen the ads. “I haven’t seen advertisements for the 2 candidates, but I heard
CAMPAIGNS page 3
SMU Election Watch:
On Tuesday night, student journalists will cover the midterm elections in real time from Austin, Fort Worth and Dallas. Visit our live blog at j.mp/smuelexlive Join the conversation on Twitter: #smuelex Tune in for a live SMU-TV elections broadcast at 9 p.m. on Channel 9 (Park Cities Cable)