L. Sandy Maisel

Louis Sandy Maisel (October 23, 1945 – December 9, 2024) was an American political scientist. A longtime professor at Colby College, his work focused on U.S. elections and political parties, particularly candidate emergence, or why potential candidates do or do not run for office.

Background Maisel was born in Buffalo, New York, on October 23, 1945, and was named for his grandfather, Louis Maisel. The son of Sidney Beck and Ruthe (née Spero) Maisel, he was born into a prominent Jewish family in Buffalo. While his father graduated from Harvard University and Harvard Law School, he took over the family's furniture business. One uncle, Sherman J. Maisel, was an economist who served as a governor of the Federal Reserve, while another, David H. Popper, was a diplomat who served as American ambassador to Cyprus and to Chile.

Graduating from the Nichols School in Buffalo, Maisel followed his father and uncles to Harvard, graduating magna cum laude in 1967. He then attended Columbia University, earning a doctorate in political science in 1971. and they raised two children. He would later marry Patrice Franko, an economics professor at Colby College, in 1994.

Continuing his political activism in his new home state, Maisel served as a delegate to the 1972 and 1976 Democratic National Conventions. He also worked on the 1972 senate campaign of William Hathaway, in which he defeated longterm incumbent Margaret Chase Smith. While he lost the primary, in 1982, he would detail the campaign, in which he visited 156 communities and drove over 20,000 miles, in a book, titled From Obscurity to Oblivion: Running in the Congressional Primary.

After editing a series of electoral studies books for SAGE Publications, Maisel held numerous editorial positions, including sitting on the editorial boards of American Politics Quarterly, Polity, Legislative Studies Quarterly, and Political Research Quarterly. He would also serve as president of the New England Political Science Association in 1994–1995, and on the council of the American Political Science Association in 1989–1991 and 2000–2002. Authoring and editing numerous works on candidate emergence as well as U.S. elections, campaigns, and political parties, he became a noted expert in the field as well as a political commentator.

Retirement and death Maisel retired from teaching in 2021, and in 2024, he led a $3.7 million capital campaign for the Beth Israel Congregation in Waterville. He died from intestinal cancer at his home in Rome, Maine, on December 9, 2024, at the age of 79.

Electoral history 1978 primary election

Works Books Author

Editor

Articles

Chapters

Other works