Once the official DNC "please don't mention the senile president" autopsy is out, we'll have all the raw material for a proper take.

I'm also interested, as this stuff is and isn't social science, in what gets counted as evidence (polling; WAR; elite interviews) and doesn't.

Is there a write-up of that package somewhere? Totally agreed, and need to push back against a lot of Left Caesarism.

Schattschneider believed in parties as separate from, or at least larger than, interest groups, which all of the self-described neo-Schattschneiderians forget, and I will die on that hill.

For the record, I think it was my colleague and Mair's longtime collaborator Dick Katz, but I remember and appreciate your early enthusiasm for our work.

Almost certainly a "local" (a non-presidential item), could even be for something like state rep or selectman. You may learn more by seeing if there's any info on the curl, which laypeople would call the rim. Unlikely to have much value, not that you're looking to sell.