Representation neighboring districts and party l

Authors: Justin H Kirkland R Lucas Williams

Publish Date: 2016/02/01

Volume: 165, Issue: 3-4, Pages: 263-284

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Abstract

Legislative scholars often assume that legislators are motivated by concerns over reelection This assumption implies that legislators are forwardlooking and are motivated by a concern over what their reelection constituency will look like during their next electoral cycle In this research we show how the forwardlooking nature of legislators motivates members of the US House of Representatives to represent both their home district and their neighboring districts in their choices regarding when to support their own party Using survey responses to the 2006 2008 and 2010 Cooperative Congressional Elections Study to construct measures of Congressional District ideology empirical analysis is strongly supportive of our claims Legislators’ choices are strongly influenced both by the ideology of their home district and that of the districts that neighbor their home district Thus the electoral connection between citizens and representatives extends beyond a legislator’s own constituents to include the constituents in neighboring districtsJustin H Kirkland is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Houston R Lucas Williams is a PhD candidate in political science at the University of Houston We are grateful to Jonathan Slapin Phillip Paolino and the anonymous reviewers for feedback on our manuscript All errors are our own Correspondence regarding this work can be addressed to jhkirklanduhedu Supplemental appendices and replication materials can be found at jhkirklawordpresscom

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