When I first learned that I would be spending most of my final year in graduate school working on Capitol Hill as an APSA Congressional Fellow, I really did not know what to expect—other than that I needed to hurry up and finish my dissertation! Since most of my training was empirical in nature, with a smattering of formal theory here and there, the one thing I knew for certain was that I was in for a novel experience. After all, there are few substitutes for acting as a participant observer to uncover a different perspective on a subject.I want to thank Charles Bullock, Jeff Jenkins and especially Dave Rohde for helping me get into the Fellowship Program.