“Dr. Politics,” also known as Dr. Steffen Schmidt, professor of political science, gave his take on last week’s elections to a small audience Monday evening in Catt Hall.

The meeting was hosted by Catt Associates, a group of students affiliated with the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics.

Schmidt’s commentary, titled “OK, The People Have Spoken. Now, What Does It Mean?” deconstructed the elections and sought to provide attendees with a better understanding of why things happened the way they did Nov. 3.

Schmidt addressed possible reasons for low voter turnout among college students saying that most students aren’t familiar with candidates because they don’t read newspapers.

Instead, he said college students often rely on “MTV, Jay Leno, Letterman, Conan, Don Imus and Rush Limbaugh” to make voting decisions.

“Politics [to many students] is in the form of humor about politics,” he said.

Schmidt said students chose not to vote in the elections because they aren’t familiar with local candidates who usually are not discussed on national television programs.

He described the national elections as “weird.”

He said many of the GOP candidates were enthralled by the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal for the last six months before the election and “forgot to launch their campaigns.”

Instead of being turned off by the scandal, many voters grew weary of Ken Starr and his prolonged search for evidence of the president’s guilt, he said.

“Most Americans are frightened of the government coming into their bedrooms,” Schmidt said.

He partially blamed the media for the “hysteria” surrounding the scandal saying they diverted the public’s attention from more important issues.

Nationwide, incumbent candidates tended to retain their political offices for three reasons: name recognition, money and a preset agenda.

Schmidt said many voters reasoned “I’ll vote for the devil I know rather than the one I don’t know.”

Such was not the case in the Iowa and California races for governor.

He said Iowa voters looking for something new to whet their political appetites was the reason Vilsack came out on top.

Schmidt commented on Jesse Ventura’s surprise gubernatorial victory in Minnesota, referring to him as a “young Ronald Reagan” because of his ties to popular culture.

“There was enough [support] there for Minnesotans to stick it to the establishment,” he said.

He also commented briefly on negative political advertisements as having a reverse effect on voters, namely “swing voters.” He said swing voters are moderates and nonpartisans who tend to shift their support among candidates who support particular issues.

Schmidt said many of the swing voters were turned off by the advertisements and didn’t go to the polls.

He said the conventional wisdom which says, “when turnout is low, the Republicans win,” didn’t hold true in this election. Instead the low voter turnout benefited the Democrats.

“This election was odd because it broke a lot of traditions,” he said.