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Reposted by Maxwell Palmer

Maxwell Palmer @maxwellpalmer.com · 01/09/2026

Boston University Political Science is hiring an assistant professor with a focus on Artificial Intelligence (the intersection of artificial intelligence and politics or who use artificial intelligence applications as a methodology). @bupolisci.bsky.social academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/32578

academicjobsonline.org

Boston University, Department of Political Science

Job #AJO32578, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, US

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Maxwell Palmer @maxwellpalmer.com · 01/09/2026

I'm chairing the search, please reach out with any questions. I'll also be at APSA Th/Fri.

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Maxwell Palmer @maxwellpalmer.com · 01/09/2026

academicjobsonline.org

Boston University, Department of Political Science

Job #AJO32578, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, US

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Reposted by Maxwell Palmer

American Journal of Political Science (AJPS) @ajpseditor.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Durable majority gerrymanders: Where partisan gerrymandering can displace democracy by Maxwell Palmer and Benjamin Schneer is now available in Early View. @maxwellpalmer.com @benschneer.bsky.social ajps.org/2026/08/11/d...

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Maxwell Palmer @maxwellpalmer.com · 22/04/2026

Federal courts can't stop gerrymanders. Legislatures and voters are overruling commissions. DCP needs none of those to work—it's a partisan solution to a partisan problem. Simulations, state-by-state results, and the article are here: www.definecombine.com

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Maxwell Palmer @maxwellpalmer.com · 22/04/2026

Neither side has to trust the other or agree on what "fair" means. Instead, each party's self-interest checks the other's. In simulations on real election data, DCP dramatically shrinks partisan advantage. In Texas, ~90% less swing-seat manipulation vs. single-party control.

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Maxwell Palmer @maxwellpalmer.com · 22/04/2026

@benschneer.bsky.social, @cantstopkevin.bsky.social), developed the **Define-Combine Procedure**. We apply the "you cut, I choose" rule to mapmaking. One party divides the state into twice as many equal-population sub-districts as it needs, and then the other party pairs them into final districts.

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Maxwell Palmer @maxwellpalmer.com · 22/04/2026

It's the latest in a year of tit-for-tat mid-decade gerrymandering: - Aug 2025: Texas redraws at Trump's request, +5 GOP seats - Missouri and North Carolina follow - Nov 2025: California passes Prop 50 - Apr 2026: Virginia More than a quarter of America's congressional districts have been redrawn.

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Maxwell Palmer @maxwellpalmer.com · 22/04/2026

Partisan gerrymandering is a race to the bottom. Yesterday, Virginia voters narrowly approved (51–49) a constitutional amendment letting the state legislature redraw its congressional map through 2030 — bypassing the bipartisan commission voters created just a few years ago.

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Reposted by Maxwell Palmer

Jessica Trounstine @trounstine.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

Come join us for the Local Political Economy (pre) Conference in Boston on September 2nd!! This year we'll have papers AND posters. Indicate your interest in presenting, discussing, or just attending by 4/30/26 here: forms.gle/bP16UPzRxfsk....

forms.gle

Local Political Economy Conference

APSA pre-Conference Wednesday September 2nd, 2026 (tentatively) 10am-6pm at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) Campus Happy Poster Hour reception 6-8pm to follow at the Bloomberg Center for Cities at H...

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Reposted by Maxwell Palmer

Initiative on Cities @buoncities.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

🏘️🏗️🏙️ Today, we release findings from the 2025 #MeninoSurvey, the only nationally representative survey of American mayors that explores what mayors see as the main drivers of rising housing costs, housing policy, and political barriers they face to building more homes. surveyofmayors.com 🧵⬇️

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Reposted by Maxwell Palmer

Initiative on Cities @buoncities.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

Read the full report, supported by @arnoldventures.bsky.social, titled, “Unlocking Housing Supply: Mayors’ Views on the Politics of Housing” at surveyofmayors.com. Co-authored by @katherineeinst.bsky.social, @davidmglick.bsky.social, @maxwellpalmer.com

surveyofmayors.com

Menino Survey of Mayors

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Maxwell Palmer @maxwellpalmer.com · 20/03/2026

What academic book wouldn't be improved with this cover?

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Maxwell Palmer @maxwellpalmer.com · 19/03/2026

Can you forward this to me? I want to add it to my data science lecture slides.

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Maxwell Palmer @maxwellpalmer.com · 05/03/2026

So many regulatory processes, from local zoning to federal rule-making, rely on public comment, and comments are treated as submitted in good faith. I've heard anecdotal cases of comments being written by AI, but not astroturfing-as-a-service.

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Reposted by Maxwell Palmer

Jonathan Berk 🏠 @berkie1.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

Consistently, in survey after survey, housing availability and affordability is THE number one issue facing Massachusetts voters. A ‘status quo’ approach to housing from any elected official, of any political party, should be considered malpractice today.

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Reposted by Maxwell Palmer

Jonathan Berk 🏠 @berkie1.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

A new poll from @abundanthousingma.org & YouGov finds 58% of voters support legalizing starter homes on 5,000sf lots. Just 21% oppose it. Legalizing smaller homes, instead of locking communities into 40,000sf+ mansion zoning, makes the American Dream more attainable in Massachusetts.

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Maxwell Palmer @maxwellpalmer.com · 14/01/2026

It's only two weeks into 2026, but I'm pretty sure The Raven Scholar is going to be the one of the best books I read this year.

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Maxwell Palmer @maxwellpalmer.com · 21/09/2025

Is there an incompleteness or impossibility theorem about this? It's impossible to prevent hallucinations, and any model that reviews models to detect hallucinations is also vulnerable to hallucinations?

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Maxwell Palmer @maxwellpalmer.com · 14/08/2025

The Define-Combine Procedure allows both parties to act in their own partisan interests but produces a fair map by dividing map-drawing power between both parties.

Instead, we believe it is possible to make reforms that keep the current electoral system while also overcoming some of its flaws. We’ve developed a process-based solution that has a number of appealing properties. It’s inspired by the problem parents face when dividing a cake between two children. How can they make sure everyone gets an equal slice? One child cuts the cake in two, and the other child chooses between the two pieces.

Our approach, which we call the “Define-Combine Procedure,” splits the map drawing process into two simple stages. First, one party divides the state into twice the number of needed districts—for example, 20 sub-districts for a state that needs 10 congressional seats. Then, the second party pairs those sub-districts into the final 10 districts. The result is a fairer map than either party would have drawn on its own. Instead of mutually assured gerrymandering, this approach leads to mutually assured representation.

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Maxwell Palmer @maxwellpalmer.com · 14/08/2025

The redistricting battles evoke the cold war: "unilaterally disarm," "nuclear option," "mutually assured gerrymandering." We call our solution "mutually assured representation." bsky.app/profile/atru...

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Reposted by Maxwell Palmer

Ben Schneer @benschneer.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

I've been thinking through the implications of extreme gerrymandering for several years now. Today I wrote an article in Time that lays out the problem and describes one solution. We think that we need a "partisan" solution to partisan gerrymandering. time.com/7309565/amer...

time.com

How to Fix America’s Gerrymandering Problem

As Trump pushes states to redraw districts in favor of Republicans, this solution could help stop gerrymandering.

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Reposted by Maxwell Palmer

Ben Schneer @benschneer.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

You may have noticed things are happening fast in the world of redistricting… I along with @maxwellpalmer.com and @simko.bsky.social wrote an article last week (though published today) that analyzes the changes to the congressional district map in Texas, and particularly San Antonio.

expressnews.com

Republicans are seeking to create a durable gerrymander in Texas

Short-term tactical gains in Texas could ultimately yield a race to the bottom.

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Reposted by Maxwell Palmer

Jonathan Berk 🏠 @berkie1.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

Blocking new development doesn’t “preserve” your town—it drains your wallet. No new homes = no new taxpayers… but guess what does grow? School budgets, potholes, annual maintenance costs and legacy pension requirements. Fewer people to split that bill = higher taxes for you.

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Reposted by Maxwell Palmer

James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

What happens when immigrants and their descendants enter the halls of power? Does family history matter for policy on a contentious topic like immigration? @benschneer.bsky.social, @maxwellpalmer.com, and I wrote a post for the LSE United States Centre about our forthcoming @qjeharvard.bsky.social

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Reposted by Maxwell Palmer

David Roberts @volts.wtf · 06/05/2025

A truly depressing account of the enormous time, effort, & resources that go into building *anything* in blue cities. Can not be exaggerated how much this phenomenon is crippling blue politics in the US. www.inquirer.com/real-estate/...

inquirer.com

How many meetings does it take in Philadelphia to build 57 affordable homes? A lot.

The Philadelphia Housing Authority and developer Pennrose have been trying to get project approval since 2019. The cost has risen, and federal funding could be at risk.

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Reposted by Maxwell Palmer

becca laurie @imbeccable.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

bill de blasio in park slope, ordering his breakfast sandwich as “mi sandwich especial” and quoting the onion headline omg www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Screenshot from The New Yorker: One morning a few weeks ago, I met de Blasio at his regular coffee shop in Park Slope. He had just come from the gym—the same one that he’d insisted on commuting to every morning from Gracie Mansion, no matter how much grief the press gave him for it—and was wearing sweats. He held forth among his fellow-patrons with a spirit of magnanimous, possibly unreciprocated camaraderie, greeting a startled man by the door with a familiar “How you doing, brother?” and ordering his breakfast (scrambled egg whites, cheddar, ham, and tomato on multigrain toast) as “mi sandwich especial.” These days, de Blasio most often makes the news for his love life or for such momentous moves as dyeing his salt-and-pepper crewcut. But he’s sensed a bit of de Blasio nostalgia creeping into town. “Since I left office, the No. 1 thing that people come up to me on the street and talk about is pre-K,” he told me, lacing his iced espresso with a heavy pour of simple syrup. “The No. 2 thing that people talk about is that Onion headline.” He quoted it for me, savoring every word: “Well, well, well, not so easy to find a mayor that doesn’t suck shit, huh?”

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Reposted by Maxwell Palmer

Jonathan Berk 🏠 @berkie1.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

Boston's Zoning Board of Appeals, in a 5-2 vote, rejected plans for 70-units of new housing, just 0.3mi to the MBTA's Andrew Square station, to replace a 2-story industrial building. US Congressman Stephen Lynch (D) sent an aide to read a letter opposing the development for lack of parking...

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Maxwell Palmer @maxwellpalmer.com · 20/03/2025

This is great music for grading midterms.

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Reposted by Maxwell Palmer

Christopher Gavin @chrisgavin.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

New: Johnston, R.I., has formally taken ownership of 31 acres of land through eminent domain as it moves forward with plans to build a new Town Hall and police and fire stations there, thwarting a proposal seeking to build affordable housing at the site. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/03/17/m...

bostonglobe.com

Johnston, R.I., follows through on seizure of land by eminent domain, halting 250-unit affordable housing project - The Boston Globe

Town officials are facing a lawsuit alleging they abused the law to block the housing “simply because they don’t want that kind of thing in their town.”

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Maxwell Palmer @maxwellpalmer.com · 13/03/2025

Also, for traffic, I think in the Boston area traffic comes up in every conversation, regardless of topic.

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Maxwell Palmer @maxwellpalmer.com · 13/03/2025

I think we see schools mentioned more around large developments, especially affordable housing developments. Since we included every multi family development in our sample, that might affect our results.

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Maxwell Palmer @maxwellpalmer.com · 07/02/2025

This is not helping my productivity on a day when I need to finish a report with PDF graphs.

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Maxwell Palmer @maxwellpalmer.com · 07/02/2025

I am confident that this will be the best thing I read today.

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Reposted by Maxwell Palmer

Katherine Levine Einstein @katherineeinst.bsky.social · 06/01/2025

This story underscores just how much communities are willing to spend to avoid building more housing. @maxwellpalmer.com and I find that communities buy land, sometimes to block affordable housing, with no plan or capacity to maintain/redevelop the property. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/01/05/m...

bostonglobe.com

After eight years, Northborough has no purpose for historic White Cliffs estate - The Boston Globe

Northborough has poured millions into the White Cliffs estate. It still is unused.

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Maxwell Palmer @maxwellpalmer.com · 30/12/2024

I just completed all 25 days of Advent of Code 2024! #AdventOfCode adventofcode.com

adventofcode.com

Advent of Code 2024

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Maxwell Palmer @maxwellpalmer.com · 17/12/2024

We just bought our first set, and it is great. I was really impressed, especially with the light kit. We got the ski cabin, and it fits in great with our winter village sets.

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Maxwell Palmer @maxwellpalmer.com · 11/12/2024

I just completed "Hoof It" - Day 10 - Advent of Code 2024 #AdventOfCode adventofcode.com/2024/day/10

adventofcode.com

Day 10 - Advent of Code 2024

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Maxwell Palmer @maxwellpalmer.com · 02/12/2024

I just completed "Red-Nosed Reports" - Day 2 - Advent of Code 2024 #AdventOfCode adventofcode.com/2024/day/2

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