Alan Greenblatt
Alan Greenblatt has been covering politics and government in Washington and around the country for 20 years. He came to NPR as a digital reporter in 2010, writing about a wide range of topics, including elections, housing economics, natural disasters and same-sex marriage.
He was previously a reporter with Governing, a magazine that covers state and local government issues. Alan wrote about education, budgets, economic development and legislative behavior, among other topics. He is the coauthor, with Kevin Smith, of Governing States and Localities, a college-level textbook that is now in its fourth edition.
As a reporter for Congressional Quarterly, he was the inaugural winner of the National Press Club's Sandy Hume Memorial Award for Excellence in Political Journalism, which is given to outstanding reporters under the age of 35. Sadly, he no longer meets that requirement.
Along the way, Alan has contributed articles about politics and culture for numerous publications, including The New York Times, Washington Post and the San Francisco Chronicle. He is happy to be working for an outlet where he has been able to write about everything from revolutions in the Middle East to antique jazz recordings.
Alan is a graduate of San Francisco State University and holds a master's degree from the University of Virginia.
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The outcome of the presidential race will come down to swing states, but Obama begins the race to 270 with the comfort of counting on a greater number of all-but-certain electoral votes than Romney has. -
Both political parties are featuring high-profile convention speakers who once were on the other side. They get a lot of attention, but their new partisan paths don't always lead to long-term career success. -
Mitt Romney's strategy for November relies on white working-class voters — perhaps too heavily, some analysts suggest, given the growing share of the electorate made up of nonwhites. It's an issue the party is trying to address at its convention, with a speaker lineup loaded with high-profile minority officeholders. -
It's been many years since political conventions offered any real drama or suspense. Still, they're a nonpareil opportunity for partisans to unite and try to win over voters who are largely uninterested in the parties. -
Republicans will have to rewrite their script if the storm, which is forecast to hit hurricane strength, stays on course to hit Tampa on Monday. That's the first scheduled day of the party's nominating convention. -
The economic recovery is still tepid in most parts of the country, and there's a sense of trepidation that signs of improvement might not last. Among the swing states, some are doing comparatively well while others are struggling — but the political picture looks roughly the same in all. -
The Supreme Court's health ruling limited the federal government's power to withhold funding if states don't meet certain requirements. But it didn't draw a clear line between the types of financial conditions that are OK and those unfair to states. That's likely to lead to lawsuits. -
Due to big GOP gains in 2010 and likely turnover this fall, about half the nation's state legislators will have just two years' experience or less when they take their seats next January.
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Allegations of a long-term affair involving Herman Cain offer evidence that presidential candidates can't count on their private lives staying private. -
Allegations of a long-term affair involving Herman Cain offer evidence that presidential candidates can't count on their private lives staying private.