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Over the last 32 years, many U.S. representatives have tried to make the journey from the House floor to the Senate chambers. Previous research depicts representatives as the most frequent type of senatorial candidate (Copeland 1989; Brace 1994). However, our understanding of the motives behind these progressively ambitious representatives is relatively unknown. Application of ambition and strategic politician theories to lower-level races finds candidates are facing increased costs or liabilities are less likely to emerge as a candidate for higher office. This paper applies these theories across a longer range of elections than any previous study, and it evaluates factors that increase their probability of winning--i.e., ones increasing visibility and attractiveness as a senatorial candidate. Additionally, I analyze both sitting and former representatives to better understand the effects of representative status. This research design should help us improve our understanding of why some representatives run for the U.S. Senate, while most representatives do not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will explore some of the conceptual difficulties associated with explaining individual participation in extremist politics. Policymakers and scholars interested in the mo-tivating factors behind terrorism and extremism need to move beyond the limited assump-tions associated with traditional analyses that all too frequently presume that individuals are engaged in a constant struggle to accrue the greatest number of material goods. Certainly individuals do strive for pecuniary gain. Still, such a framework may be better apt to describe the employee who changes one workplace for a higher paying substitute or even the astute politician altering their party?s platform in a bid to appeal to the electorate?s sway. Conjec-tures that all people seek to improve their material lot fail to explain the sacrifices made while engaging in other activities, particularly politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we look again at the distinction between independent voters "leaners" and partisans. We find some important similarities between "pure" independents and independents classified as "leaners." We argue that although independent leaners may be similar to partisans on some measures, they are behaviorally and attitudinally distinct from partisans in important ways. Even more importantly, the behavioral similarity between partisans and leaners changes when there are more than two candidates on offer. The behavioral similarity of leaners to partisans emphasized in previous studies can thus be understood as a product of the forced choice between the two parties that typifies the American political system. When more options are available, independent leaners take advantage of those options and do not remain loyal to the two big parties in the same measure as partisans. The position of independent leaners in the US is thus loosely analogous to the position tactical voters in multi-party systems in that they are compelled by the party system to choose between the lesser of two evils. Our argument suggests that earlier results and interpretations of independents reflected the specific two party choice settings of the 1950s through the 1980s. Furthermore, even assuming a behavioral similarity to partisans, leaners have distinct attitudes towards politics and the political system that put them far away from being standard Michigan model-type voters. We begin by presenting a brief review of the sizable literature on this topic. From here we present some simple evidence that supports an alternative interpretation of leaners as neither partisans nor "pure" independents, but as "critical citizens." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the "Two Faces of Issue Voting" (1980), Carmines and Stimson argue that some issues are inherently "easy" and are understood by the public at an emotional, "gut" level, while other issues are intrinsically "hard" and require greater political sophistication and interest to process. This theory is intuitively appealing and widely cited in the American political behavior literature. Yet "easy" issues have been interpreted differently by various scholars, so how can we tell which are "easy" issues? Using survey data over time, I explore different measures of easiness, beginning with a traditional measure (connection to the vote) and then moving to other potential indicators of easy issues, examining the role of core values and group affect in conditioning issue easiness. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a study which explored the implications of party culture for modeling voting behavior in the U.S. The study considered member profile, party status and district data in analyzing the partisan contours of legislative behavior. It discovered that the responsiveness of members to personal, district and positional forces is influenced by party affiliation.

The article highlights the disparate causes of inflated survey reports of political participation in the U.S. It uses various National Election Study (NES) data to provide an assessment of the magnitude of the various effect that result in survey overestimates. It discusses several different source of non-random error which affect the estimates of voting participation of NES.

Explores the issue base of the gender gap in voting. Overview of the central issues on which women and men differ in U.S. politics; Factors which make women relatively liberal on issues affecting the less fortunate in society and less likely than men to vote strictly in terms of their own economic self-interest; Several models of how the issue positions of women and men can shape the gender gap in voting; Reasons women are becoming an important serial constituency in U.S. politics.

Discusses the importance of partisanship in U.S. congressional members' support for environmental measures. Role of partisanship in structuring environmental voting; Factors that influence legislators in voting on environmental legislation; Methodological difficulties associated with including member ideology as an independent variable in environmental voting.

Clinton (2006) finds that the revealed preferences of Republican House members are related to the preferences of their Republican constituents, but that the revealed preferences of Democratic House members are most strongly related to the preferences of their constituents that do not self-identify as Democrats. We suggest that Clinton's puzzling results are largely an artifact of his model and measures. The results change significantly when we replace Clinton's measure of constituency preferences based on self-identified ideology with a measure of constituency preferences constructed from responses to a dozen policy specific questions. More importantly, we suggest that the puzzling character of Clinton's results stem from a model that is inconsistent with the theoretical literature on the competing electoral pressures faced by every MC. We offer a model which is consistent with standard accounts of multiple constituencies. The results from our model are readily interpretable in terms of cross pressures on the MC from the median member of the geographic constituency and the median partisan.Clinton, Joshua. 2006. "Constituents and Roll Calls in the 106th House," Journal of Politics, Vol. 68(2): 397-409. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on political party networks, especially the national party networks in Washington to better understand today's intensely partisan environment in the U.S. The principal players in the Washington party networks include elected officials, congressional staffers, fundraisers, lobbyists, interest group representatives, political consultants, think tank researchers and some figures in the mass media.