Partisan Gerrymandering and State Legislative Districts

2009 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 227-232
Author(s):  
Richard L. Engstrom
Keyword(s):  
Legislative Districts ◽  
State Legislative

Campaign and Contextual Influences on Voter Participation in State Legislative Elections

1999 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 403-433 ◽  
Author(s):  
ROBERT E. HOGAN
Keyword(s):  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Campaign Spending ◽  
Voter Participation ◽  
Strong Impact ◽  
Contextual Influences ◽  
Legislative Elections ◽  
Campaign Effects ◽  
State Legislative Elections ◽  
Legislative Districts ◽  
State Legislative

Recent studies suggest that campaign mobilization factors such as candidate spending and electoral competition play a substantial role in influencing voter participation in elections. This analysis focuses on the relative influence of these campaign effects along with a variety of contextual features on district-level turnout in state legislative elections. Models testing a variety of variables across seven states in 1994 point to the overwhelming influence of socioeconomic and political context, with campaign mobilization effects contributing a much smaller degree of explanatory power. While some mobilization factors (such as campaign spending) have the potential to exert a strong impact on turnout, factors beyond the control of candidate campaigns are responsible for much of the observed variation in turnout across state legislative districts.

scholarly journals Rejoinder

1995 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 49-58
Author(s):  
Joseph A. Aistrup
Keyword(s):  
Structural Characteristics ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Legislative Elections ◽  
Southern State ◽  
Social Events ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Time Periods ◽  
State Legislative Elections ◽  
Legislative Districts ◽  
State Legislative

The commentary of our colleagues is appreciated. Even though this reply will not settle this controversy, it might provide a starting point for others wishing to examine this topic. The article had two major findings. The first is that there was a minimal Democratic bias in contested southern state legislative districts in the 1970s and 1980s. The second is that the Democrats appear to have used the switch from multimember districts (MMDs) to single-member districts (SMDs) to insulate themselves from large vote swings by lowering the swing ratio (responsiveness) of the electoral system. Krassa and Combs make two criticisms of this research: First, the grouping time periods together means the analysis includes the effects of other structural and social events, thus confounding the analysis of changes in the swing ratio and bias. They suggest a need to adopt a similar methodology to King and Gelman (1991), which controls for the structural characteristics in southern state legislative elections. Their second critique is the interpretation of a declining swing ratio protecting incumbents is incorrect. A more desirable situation for Democratic incumbents is to have a high swing ratio because it converts lower vote shares into a higher proportion of Democratically controlled districts. Bullock’s critique notes the findings are not generalizable to the affirmative action gerrymandering associated with the 1990s redistricting process. I begin by addressing the methodological critique of Krassa and Combs. Then I turn to the latter two questions involving the interpretation of our findings.

scholarly journals Estimating Health Conditions for Small Areas: Asthma Symptom Prevalence for State Legislative Districts

2007 ◽  
Vol 42 (6p2) ◽  
pp. 2389-2409 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn A. Mendez-Luck ◽  
Hongjian Yu ◽  
Ying-Ying Meng ◽  
Mona Jhawar ◽  
Steven P. Wallace
Keyword(s):  
Asthma Symptom ◽  
Health Conditions ◽  
Small Areas ◽  
Symptom Prevalence ◽  
Legislative Districts ◽  
State Legislative

Measuring the Rural Continuum in Political Science

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Zoe Nemerever ◽  
Melissa Rogers
Keyword(s):  
Construct Validity ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Political Behavior ◽  
Rural Politics ◽  
Rural Geography ◽  
Rural Identity ◽  
Urban Rural ◽  
Legislative Districts ◽  
State Legislative

Abstract Recent accounts of American politics focus heavily on urban–rural gaps in political behavior. Rural politics research is growing but may be stymied by difficulties defining and measuring which Americans qualify as “rural.” We discuss theoretical and empirical challenges to studying rurality. Much existing research has been inattentive to conceptualization and measurement of rural geography. We focus on improving estimation of different notions of rurality and provide a new dataset on urban–rural measurement of U.S. state legislative districts. We scrutinize construct validity and measurement in two studies of rural politics. First, we replicate Flavin and Franko (2020, Political Behavior, 845–864) to demonstrate empirical results may be sensitive to measurement of rural residents. Second, we use Mummolo and Nall’s (2017, The Journal of Politics, 45–59) survey data to show rural self-identification is not well-captured with objective, place-based classifications, suggesting a rethinking of theoretical and empirical accounts of rural identity. We conclude with strategies for operationalizing rurality using readily available tools.

The Unrealized Precedent of DAVIS V. BANDEMER

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas R. Seabrook
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
The United States ◽  
Congressional Elections ◽  
The State ◽  
Congressional Districts ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Legislative Districts ◽  
State Legislative

This chapter examines the involvement of the Supreme Court of the United States in litigation relating to partisan gerrymandering, paying particular attention to a case that attempted to apply the previously established Davis v. Bandemer precedent to congressional elections: Vieth v. Jubelirer. It begins with an overview of Badham v. Eu, which arose from the redrawing of California's congressional districts in the aftermath of the 1980 census and its most significant holding: that the Bandemer precedent, which had initially been applied to the drawing of state legislative districts only, also extends to the drawing of congressional districts. The chapter then considers the circumstances surrounding the Vieth case, in which the alleged political gerrymander concerned the reapportionment plan for the congressional districts in the state of Pennsylvania rather than those for the state assembly. It also analyzes the Supreme Court's 2004 decision in Vieth, focusing on Justice Antonin Scalia's plurality opinion and Justice Anthony Kennedy's concurring opinion.

The Role of Constituency, Party, and Industry in Pennsylvania’s Act 13

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 154-179
Author(s):  
Bradford H. Bishop ◽  
Mark R. Dudley
Keyword(s):  
Large Body ◽  
State Level ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Policy Outcome ◽  
Roll Call ◽  
Multivariate Models ◽  
Legislative Districts ◽  
State Legislative ◽  
Important State

While a large body of research exists regarding the role of industry money on roll-call voting in the U.S. Congress, there is surprisingly little scholarship pertaining to industry influence on state politics. This study fills this void in an analysis of campaign donations and voting during passage of Act 13 in Pennsylvania during 2011 and 2012. After collecting information about natural gas production in state legislative districts, we estimate a series of multivariate models aimed at uncovering whether campaign donations contributed to a more favorable policy outcome for industry. Our findings indicate that campaign donations played a small but systematic role in consideration of the controversial legislation, which represented one of the first and most important state-level regulatory reforms for the hydraulic fracturing industry.

The Impact of Multimember State Legislative Districts on Welfare Policy

2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 265-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher W. Larimer
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Minorities ◽  
Welfare Policy ◽  
Descriptive Representation ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Substantive Representation ◽  
Racial And Ethnic Minorities ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Legislative Districts ◽  
State Legislative ◽  
Generous Welfare

Electing members of legislatures through multimember districts (MMDs) reduces racial and ethnic minorities' descriptive representation in those bodies, but is their substantive representation also hurt? Do legislative MMDs lead to worse policy outcomes for minorities independent of their effect on legislative demographics? To address these questions, I examine welfare policy in the states from 1997 to 2000. I find evidence that suggests that states whose upper legislative chamber is comprised of MMDs have significantly less generous welfare policy. I conclude that MMDs do indeed damage the substantive representation of racial and ethnic minorities in legislatures, independent of their effect on descriptive representation.

Measuring Constituency Ideology Using Bayesian Universal Kriging

2020 ◽  
pp. 153244002093019
Author(s):  
Jeff Gill
Keyword(s):  
Past Research ◽  
Statistical Technique ◽  
Universal Kriging ◽  
Congressional District ◽  
Important Distinction ◽  
Congressional Districts ◽  
Validity Check ◽  
Legislative Districts ◽  
State Legislative ◽  
Zip Code

In this article, we develop and make available measures of public ideology in 2010 for the 50 American states, 435 congressional districts, and state legislative districts. We do this using the geospatial statistical technique of Bayesian universal kriging, which uses the locations of survey respondents, as well as population covariate values, to predict ideology for simulated citizens in districts across the country. In doing this, we improve on past research that uses the kriging technique for forecasting public opinion by incorporating Alaska and Hawaii, making the important distinction between ZIP codes and ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, and introducing more precise data from the 2010 Census. We show that our estimates of ideology at the state, congressional district, and state legislative district levels appropriately predict the ideology of legislators elected from these districts, serving as an external validity check.

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