INTRODUCTION

Thus far I have provided a new characterization of how senators engage their constituents, introducing new measures of how senators present their work – senators' presentational styles. The styles are arrayed along a spectrum. At one end are the Issue Oriented senators – legislators whose presentational styles focus on articulating positions. At the other end are Appropriators – senators whose presentational styles focus on claiming credit for money allocated to their state. Between the two styles are senators who strike a balance position taking and credit claiming in their press releases.

This chapter shows that the electoral connection exerts substantial influence over where legislators fall on this spectrum: who legislators represent affects how they present their work. The logic of building support in primary and general elections leads to the prediction that marginal senators, senators from states with a large share of the other party's partisans, will avoid articulating positions, instead claiming credit for expenditures. Aligned representatives, senators representing states with a large share of their own party's partisans, have incentive to articulate their positions and allocate less attention to credit claiming.

I show that this expectation manifests in senators' expressed priorities. The electoral connection's influence is observed in measures that aggregate across topics. Senators who are more aligned with constituents focus more on position taking, while marginal senators tend to focus more on credit claiming. The influence is also found in an issue-by-issue analysis.