Eschewing Obfuscation? Campaigns and the Perception of U.S. Senate Incumbents

1991 ◽  
Vol 85 (4) ◽  
pp. 1193-1214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles H. Franklin
Keyword(s):  
Roll Call ◽  
Election Study ◽  
Roll Call Voting ◽  
Campaign Strategies ◽  
Candidate Strategy ◽  
Senate Election ◽  
Voter Perceptions

Campaigns play a central role in a democracy. I examine the effect of campaigns on the perception of the ideological positions of incumbent senators. The results demonstrate that incumbents affect voter perception both through their actions in office and on the campaign trail. Using the 1988 Senate Election Study, I find that the perceived location of incumbents depends on their roll call voting records, the perceived position of their party and the voter's own position. More crucial is the finding that candidates can affect the clarity of these perceptions through their campaign strategies. Incumbents who stress issues increase the clarity of voter perceptions, while challengers' attacks on incumbents reduce clarity. While elections alone increase clarity, these effects are small in comparison to the effect due to candidate campaign strategies. The results remind us that to understand the politics of elections we must incorporate candidate strategy in our models.

Politicians' Beliefs about Voters

1967 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
John W. Kingdon
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Implicit Theory ◽  
Legislative Behavior ◽  
Roll Call ◽  
Close Attention ◽  
Roll Call Voting ◽  
Campaign Strategies ◽  
Central Concern ◽  
Lewis A

The pattern of communications between representatives and constituents has become a matter of central concern to many students of legislative behavior. As Lewis A. Dexter points out, the statement that a Congressman “represents” his district is only shorthand for the fact that the Congressman “represents his image of the district or of his constituents.” This image is established, according to Dexter, by the communications between representative and constituents: “what he hears from the district as he interprets it.” Miller and Stokes explore directly Congressmen's images of their constituents' opinions. The representative's image of his district is significant because it may constitute part of the explanation for various important types of behavior, such as his roll call voting, the stands he takes on issues of public policy, and the formulation of his campaign strategies.A portion of a representative's image of his district is composed of his beliefs about voters, his explicit or implicit theory of voting behavior. Because his position is contingent upon the approval of a majority of voters in an election, he is likely to consider at least to some degree the effect that various of his decisions might have on election outcomes. In making such judgments, the representative probably makes some assumptions, conscious or not, about the manner in which voters make their choices. If he believes, for example, that voters pay close attention to his actions, he probably feels more constrained by his district's likely opinions than if he does not hold that belief.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Buchler
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Model ◽  
Spatial Models ◽  
Spatial Theory ◽  
Roll Call ◽  
Policy Space ◽  
Policy Decisions ◽  
Roll Call Voting ◽  
Legislative Session ◽  
History Of ◽  
Conventional Models

Spatial theory is divided between models of elections and models of roll call voting, neither of which alone can explain congressional polarization. This chapter discusses the history of spatial theory, why it is important to link the two strands of spatial models, and the value of reversing the order of conventional models. Conventional models place an election before policy decisions are made. This chapter proposes a unified spatial model of Congress in which the conventional order is reversed. First, there is a legislative session, then an election in which voters respond retrospectively, not to the locations candidates claim to hold, but to the bundles of roll call votes that incumbents cast to incrementally adopt their locations in the policy space. Such a model is best suited to explaining three puzzles: why do legislators adopt extreme positions, how do they win, and what role do parties play in the process?

Gender and Roll Call Voting in the New York State Assembly

1999 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 77-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle A. Barnello
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York State ◽  
Roll Call ◽  
Roll Call Voting ◽  
York State

United States Congressional Roll Call Voting Records, 1789-1990: Reformatted Data

1992 ◽  
Author(s):  
Howard L. Rosenthal ◽  
Keith T. Poole
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Roll Call ◽  
Roll Call Voting

Roll Call Voting by Congress

1982 ◽  
pp. 31-42
Author(s):  
James B. Kau ◽  
Paul H. Rubin
Keyword(s):  
Roll Call ◽  
Roll Call Voting

Abstention from Roll Call Voting

2017 ◽  
pp. 273-294 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Roll Call ◽  
Roll Call Voting

The Influence of Social Networks on the U.S. Senate Roll-Call Voting

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 22-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jang Hyun Kim ◽  
George A. Barnett ◽  
K. Hazel Kwon
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Communication Networks ◽  
United States Senate ◽  
Roll Call ◽  
Party Membership ◽  
Roll Call Voting ◽  
Complex Models ◽  
Network Properties ◽  
Committee Membership ◽  
Relational Resources

Along with individuals’ ideological factors, various network properties play a crucial role in the process of legislators’ political decision making. Social networks among legislators provide relational resources through which communication occurs, exerting social influence among the members in a network. This paper examines six social relationships among the members of the 109th United States Senate as predictors of senatorial voting (roll call votes), shared committees, co-sponsorships, party membership, PAC donation, geographical contiguity, and internet hyperlinks, which may be considered as direct or indirect representations of communication networks. The six networks are modeled using MRQAP, and results suggest that roll call voting was predicted by party membership, co-sponsorship, geographical proximity, and PAC donation networks, while shared committee membership did not contribute significantly. As for hyperlinks, results were mixed, showing a small variance of contribution in a simpler model but not significant with more complex models.

The Electoral Consequences of Roll Call Voting: Health Care and the 2018 Election

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Austin Bussing ◽  
Will Patton ◽  
Jason M. Roberts ◽  
Sarah A. Treul
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Roll Call ◽  
Roll Call Voting
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