Texas' Democratic legislators were wise to use every parliamentary maneuver available to block the enactment of a new congressional map. Beyond affecting the partisan makeup of the Texas delegation, Texas' redistricting has national implications because it adds to the GOP's narrow majority in the...
A big driver of the House's growing "play-to-the-base" psychology: over time, the two parties’ constituencies have drifted even farther apart: today's median Democratic-held seat has a PVI score of D+12, up from D+7 in 1997. The median Republican-held seat has a PVI score of R+...
the Upper House is meant to scrutinise legislation as a home of expertise; on the other, it is a tool for morale and political management in the Commons – convenient vacancies are created on the green benches by bumping MPs up, patronage (or the hope of receiving it) is extended to mai...
Shortly after the House of Representatives voted on the American Health Care Act, it was announced that a 13-member “working group” would take up the bill in the Senate. Weirdly, that group didn’t include a single female senator— optics Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell scrambled t...
With the Republican party securing control of the Senate and narrowing its majority in the House, the implications for policy making are significant. These changes to the makeup of both the House and Senate set the stage for major shifts in committee leadership, legislative agendas, and public ...
In addition, having both variables during the same Congress controls as much as possible for variations in party makeup of individual House delegations. To test the theory that linking party majority to earmark spending is inconclusive, a dummy variable for party majority will be used. B...
Texas' Democratic legislators were wise to use every parliamentary maneuver available to block the enactment of a new congressional map. Beyond affecting the partisan makeup of the Texas delegation, Texas' redistricting has national implications because it ad...
With the Republican party securing control of the Senate and narrowing its majority in the House, the implications for policy making are significant. These changes to the makeup of both the House and Senate set the stage for major shifts in committee leadership, legislative agendas, and public ...