Alan Greenblatt
Alan Greenblatt has been covering politics and government in Washington and around the country for 20 years. He came to NPR as a digital reporter in 2010, writing about a wide range of topics, including elections, housing economics, natural disasters and same-sex marriage.
He was previously a reporter with Governing, a magazine that covers state and local government issues. Alan wrote about education, budgets, economic development and legislative behavior, among other topics. He is the coauthor, with Kevin Smith, of Governing States and Localities, a college-level textbook that is now in its fourth edition.
As a reporter for Congressional Quarterly, he was the inaugural winner of the National Press Club's Sandy Hume Memorial Award for Excellence in Political Journalism, which is given to outstanding reporters under the age of 35. Sadly, he no longer meets that requirement.
Along the way, Alan has contributed articles about politics and culture for numerous publications, including The New York Times, Washington Post and the San Francisco Chronicle. He is happy to be working for an outlet where he has been able to write about everything from revolutions in the Middle East to antique jazz recordings.
Alan is a graduate of San Francisco State University and holds a master's degree from the University of Virginia.
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"People who have any brains" will avoid dredging up politics during the holidays, says one psychologist. But in our highly polarized era, family gatherings offer the chance for rare encounters with people who don't already share our partisan leanings.
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Many of the minority groups central to President Obama's victory had long supported Democrats. But he's the first party leader to put together a stable — and majority — coalition since Franklin D. Roosevelt back in the 1930s. This coalition promises to pay dividends to his party for years to come.
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The election problems in Florida that kept the nation waiting more than a month for the outcome of the presidential race back in 2000 have largely been resolved. But the state has come up with a whole new set of difficulties that led to long lines and another slow count.
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Members of the House known for notorious or offensive comments have lost their seats in Tuesday's elections. On the other hand, some are coming back.
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Obama has become only the third U.S. president to win re-election by a narrower margin than his first victory. Having won a second term, Obama will seek to set the nation's agenda on issues ranging from taxes to immigration, but he may continue to struggle in selling his ideas to Congress.
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Two independent candidates won their Senate races on Tuesday, but third-party candidates barely put a dent in the presidential outcome.
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A possible merger of local governments in Indiana faces trouble on Tuesday's ballot. Despite promises that a combined government would bring costs down, residents worry that their taxes could go up even as the quality of services declines.
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Whether it's Obama or Romney, the president will face a party in Congress hostile to his agenda, with no mandate from voters to push things through. With no consensus in the country, power may continue shifting back and forth between the parties.
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In the closing days of the campaign, some serious money is coming in behind the controversial GOP Senate nominee, and one recent poll showed his race against Claire McCaskill is a dead heat. But most observers think Akin's already done his campaign too much damage.
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A Missouri couple never find political agreement. This year, they're putting their differences on display, with "his" and "hers" yard signs in support of the two major-party tickets.