Stephen Beban
@StephenBeban
Policy Advisor in NZ; Formerly @FairVote | @WellingtonUni MA of Pol Sci (on DPR™ electoral system) | I try to be informative ≫ emotive.
Six rules for constructive criticism: 2/2 1. Don’t impugn motives 2. Note common principles 3. Don’t negatively cherry-pick opponent's record 4. Recognize diversity and dissent strengthens the party 5. Practice coalition politics 6. Cut deals if necessary to keep the peace
New op-ed from myself and @maxtmcc for Split Ticket today in @washingtonpost. Everyone talks about how Democrats need to become more popular to win again - but at least in the short-term, there's a lot of precedent that says the GOP will do most of the work for them.
We just added 2024 election data for Texas. Thanks to @redistdatahub !!!!
There’s no longer any reason to eat chicken nuggets; plant-based knockoffs beat them in taste tests. Most other fake meats aren’t yet as tasty or cheap as real meat, but as they get tastier and cheaper, they can change the world. Bluesky/X
“If a career prosecutor can be fired without reason, fear may seep into the decisions of those who remain... Fear is the tool of a tyrant... Let this moment fuel the fire... of righteous indignation at abuses of power.” — Maureen #Comey @politicalwire politicalwire.com/2025/07/17/quo…
Maurene Comey told colleagues in a farewell email that she was fired as a federal prosecutor without being given a reason, urging coworkers not to succumb to the "fear" she said her termination could cause. abcnews.link/3fwo2Ph
Clean energy could power everything on the planet and we’d still have a major climate problem. An essay excerpted from @MikeGrunwald’s forthcoming book on the challenge of feeding our hot and hungry Earth: theatlantic.com/science/archiv…
In my book, I tell the story of how climate activists thought farm-grown fuels were great until a 2008 paper in Science showed they generated massive emissions by inducing land-use change to replace the farm-grown food. The BBB bans consideration of land-use change.