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Congressional Leadership on the Front Lines: Committee Chairs, 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
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Extract

During the 2006 campaign, many on the political right expressed anxiety about the slate of Democratic representatives and senators poised to become committee chairs in the event of a Democratic victory. After the election, despite post-election promises of “unity” and “bipartisanship” among congressional Democrats, the question remained: How well would this progressive group of “old bulls” work with the new majority, the existence of which was due in part to the 61 Democrats representing House districts that President George W. Bush won in 2004? (Greenblatt 2007, 524) In this paper, we investigate the claim that Democratic committee leaders in the 110th Congress are out of step with their party caucus by comparing the ideological leadership profiles of chairs in the 110th Congress with those of their Republican predecessors in the 109th, as well as those of Democratic chairs from the “Textbook,” “Reform,” and early “Post-reform” eras. We show that Democratic chairs in the 110th Congress are primarily drawn from the most liberal ranks of the Democratic Caucus, particularly in the House.The authors wish to thank Sara Callow for her excellent and timely research assistance.

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

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