Biography

Welcome. I am employed as Political Director in the Office of the David Shearer, the leader of the New Zealand Labour Party. I started this job in early 2013, and its nature means that I no longer make any public comment about politics, either on this site or elsewhere.
 
I previously worked in university positions, mainly in the USA. I was an Assistant Professor of political science at the University of Michigan, was visiting faculty at Stanford, and gained my PhD at UCLA. Further details about my academic research, including copies of my published papers and datasets, are here.
 
This archive is intended to assist future students and scholars in fields related to my research. It represents my personal views at the time of writing. It does not necessarily represent Labour's views, either then or now. The same is true of my blog posts about politics published in various venues from 2005-2012.
 
I am married to Jana von Stein. We have had two daughters. Sophie was our first child, and source of inspiration to many, but she is sadly no longer with us. An account of her journey is available here. Paige, our second daughter, is vital and vibrant and a joy to be near.