Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-pvkqz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-09T23:30:23.624Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Congressional Leadership on the Front Lines: CommitteeChairs, Electoral Security, and Ideology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 January 2008

Lawrence A. Becker  and
Vincent G. Moscardelli
Lawrence A. Becker
Affiliation:
California State University, Northridge
Vincent G. Moscardelli
Affiliation:
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

During the 2006 campaign, many on the political right expressedanxiety about the slate of Democratic representatives and senatorspoised to become committee chairs in the event of a Democraticvictory. After the election, despite post-election promises of“unity” and “bipartisanship” among congressional Democrats, thequestion remained: How well would this progressive group of “oldbulls” work with the new majority, the existence of which was due inpart to the 61 Democrats representing House districts that PresidentGeorge W. Bush won in 2004? (Greenblatt 2007, 524) In this paper, we investigate the claim thatDemocratic committee leaders in the 110th Congress areout of step with their party caucus by comparing the ideologicalleadership profiles of chairs in the 110th Congress withthose of their Republican predecessors in the 109th, aswell as those of Democratic chairs from the “Textbook,” “Reform,”and early “Post-reform” eras. We show that Democratic chairs in the110th Congress are primarily drawn from the mostliberal ranks of the Democratic Caucus, particularly in theHouse.The authors wish to thankSara Callow for her excellent and timely researchassistance.

Information

Type
SYMPOSIUM
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 41 , Issue 1 , January 2008 , pp. 77 - 82
Copyright
© 2008 The American Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Cheney, Dick. 2006. Remarks By Vice President Richard Cheney at a Luncheon For Representative Jim Ryun (R-KS). 12 October. Federal News Service (retrieved from Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe, October 2, 2007).Google Scholar
Cohen, Richard E. 1999. “Crackup of the Committees.” National Journal, 31 (July 31).Google Scholar
Deering, Christopher J., and Paul J. Wahlbeck. 2006. “U.S. House Committee Chair Selection: Republicans Play Musical Chairs in the 107th Congress.” American Politics Research 34 (March): 223–42.Google Scholar
Evans, C. Lawrence. 1991. Leadership in Committee: A Comparative Analysis of Leadership Behavior in the U.S. Senate. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fenno, Richard F. 1973. Committees in Congress. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Greenblatt, Alan. 2007. “Democrats in Congress.” CQ Researcher 17 (June 8): 505–28.Google Scholar
Hall, Richard L. 1998. Participation in Congress. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Kimitch, Rebecca. 2007. “CQ Guide to the Committees: Democrats Opt to Spread the Power.” CQ Weekly Online, April 16, 1080–3.Google Scholar
League of Conservation Voters. 2006. “National Environmental Scorecard '06.” www.lcv.org/scorecard. Accessed October 6, 2007.Google Scholar
League of Conservation Voters. 2004. “LCV Names Senator Barbara Boxer as Environmental Champion.” www.lcv.org/newsroom/press-releaseslcv-names-senator-barbara-boxer-as-environmental-champion.html. Accessed October 6, 2007.Google Scholar
MacRae, Duncan Jr. 1956. “Roll Call Votes and Leadership.” Public Opinion Quarterly 20 (Autumn): 543–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelson, Garrison. N.d. “Committees in the U.S. Congress, 1947–1992,” web.mit.edu/17.251/www/data_page.html [House and Senate/87th and 95th Congresses]. Accessed October 1, 2007.Google Scholar
Oppenheimer, Bruce I. 2005. “Deep Red and Blue Congressional Districts: The Causes and Consequences of Declining Party Competitiveness.” In Congress Reconsidered, 8th Edition, eds. Lawrence C. Dodd and Bruce I. Oppenheimer. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 135–57.Google Scholar
Patterson, Samuel C. 1963. “Legislative Leadership and Political Ideology.” Public Opinion Quarterly 27 (Autumn): 399–410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poole, Keith T. 1998. “Recovering a Basic Space From a Set of Issue Scales.” American Journal of Political Science 42 (July): 954–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poole, Keith T. 2004. “Description of NOMINATE Data.” http://voteview.ucsd.edu/page2a.htm. Accessed October 1, 2007.Google Scholar
Reeves, Andree E. 1993. Congressional Committee Chairmen: Three Who Made an Evolution. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press.Google Scholar
Renka, Russell D., and Daniel E. Ponder. 2005. “Committee Seniority Violations in the U.S. House.” Presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, D.C., September 1.Google Scholar
Rohde, David W. 1991. Parties and Leaders in the Postreform House. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Shepsle, Kenneth A. 1989. “The Changing Textbook Congress.” In Can the Government Govern?, eds. John E. Chubb and Paul E. Peterson. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 238–66.Google Scholar
Smith, Steven S., and Christopher J. Deering. 1997. Committees in Congress, 3rd ed. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press.Google Scholar
Stewart, Charles III, and Jonathan Woon. 2005. “Congressional Committee Assignments, 103rd to 105th Congresses, 1993–1998” web.mit.edu/17.251/www/data_page.html [House and Senate], [Updated 12 July]. Accessed October 1, 2007.Google Scholar
Strahan, Randall. 1990. New Ways and Means: Reform and Change in a Congressional Committee. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Truman, David B. 1959. The Congressional Party: A Case Study. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Unekis, Joseph K., and Leroy N. Rieselbach. 1983. “Congressional Committee Leadership, 1971–1978.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 8 (May): 251–70.Google Scholar