Following the work of Downs and Mayhew, some theories of legislative politics assume that candidates are motivated only by electoral interests and their behavior is driven by the median voter in their district. Other theories, however, posit that legislator behavior is driven by additional factors such as member's policy interests or those of the primary constituency. It is our theoretical expectation that Downs was not incorrect but rather incomplete. In this article, we classify the Republican freshman representatives elected in 1994 according to these different motives and conclude that different motives are related to systematic differences in behavior. We observe pressure from the district median, and the representatives' primary electorate and personal ideological commitments exert a significant and independent effect on the positions taken by representatives. Our results indicate that members are influenced by factors outside of their district median.
Abramowitz, A. I. (1995). The end of the democratic era? 1994 and the future of congressional election research. Political Research Quarterly, 48, 873-889.
2.
Abramowitz, A. I., & Saunders, K. L. (1998). Ideological realignment in the U.S. electorate. Journal of Politics, 60, 634-652.
3.
Aldrich, J. H. (1983). A Downsian spatial model with party activism. American Political Science Review, 77, 974-990.
4.
Aldrich, J. H. (1995). Why parties? The origin and transformation of political parties in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
5.
Aldrich, J. H.,& Rohde, D. W. (2000). The Republican revolution and the House Appropriations Committee. Journal of Politics, 62, 1-33.
6.
Aldrich, J. H.,& Rohde, D. W. (2001). The logic of conditional party government: Revisiting the electoral connection. In L. C. Dodd& B. I. Oppenheimer (Eds.), Congress reconsidered (7th ed., pp. 269-292). Washington, DC: CQ Press.
7.
Andres, G. J. (1999). Observations on a post-Gingrich House. PS: Political Science and Politics, 32, 571-574.
8.
Ansolabehere, S., Snyder, J. M., Jr., & Stewart, C., III. (2001). Candidate positioning in U.S. House elections. American Journal of Political Science, 45, 136-159.
9.
Aranson, P. H., & Ordershook, P. C. (1972). Spatial strategies for sequential elections. In R. G. Niemi & H. F. Weisberg (Eds.), Probability models of collective decision making (pp. 298-331). Columbus, OH: Merrill.
10.
Bickers, K. N.,& Stein, R. M. (2000). The congressional pork barrel in a Republican era. Journal of Politics, 62, 1070-1086.
11.
Bullock, C. S., III. (1976). Motivations for U.S. congressional committee preferences: Freshman of the 92nd Congress. Legislative Studies Quarterly, 1, 201-212.
12.
Calvert, R. (1985). Robustness of the multidimensional voting model: Candidate motivations, uncertainty, and convergence. American Journal of Political Science, 29, 69-95.
13.
Diamond, S. (1988). Not by politics alone: The enduring influence of the Christian Right. New York: Guilford.
14.
Downs, A. (1957). An economic theory of democracy. New York: Harper and Row.
15.
Drew, E. (1996). Showdown: The struggle between the Gingrich Congress and the Clinton White House. New York: Simon & Schuster.
16.
Erikson, R. S.,& Wright, G. C. (2001). Voters, candidates, and issues in congressional elections. In L. C. Dodd & B. I. Oppenheimer (Eds.), Congress reconsidered (7th ed., pp. 67-95). Washington, DC: CQ Press.
17.
Evans, C. L.,& Oleszek, W. J. (1997). Congress under fire: Reform policies and the Republican majority. New York: Houghton Mifflin.
18.
Fenno, R. F., Jr. (1973). Congressmen in committees. Boston: Little, Brown.
19.
Fenno, R. F., Jr. (1978). Home style. Boston: Little, Brown.
20.
Fiorina, M. P. (1999, April). Whatever happened to the median voter? Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago.
21.
Francis, W., Kenny, L., Morton, R., & Schmidt, A. (1994). Retrospective voting and political mobility. American Journal of Political Science, 38, 999-1024.
22.
Gimpel, J. G. (1996). Fulfilling the contract: The first 100 days. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn& Bacon.
23.
Green, J. C. (1995). The Christian Right and the 1994 elections: An overview. In M. J. Rozell & C. Coker (Eds.), God at the grass roots: The Christian Right in the 1994 elections (pp. 1-18). Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
24.
Green, J. C., Guth, J. L.,& Hill, K. (1993). Faith and election: The Christian Right in congressional campaigns 1978-1988. Journal of Politics, 55, 80-91.
25.
Green, J. C., Guth, J. L.,& Wilcox, C. (1998). Less than conquerors: The Christian Right in state Republican parties. In A. Costain & A. McFarland (Eds.), Social movements and American political institutions (pp. 117-135). Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
26.
Grofman, B. (2004). Downs and two-party convergence. Annual Review of Political Science, 7, 25-46.
27.
Hall, R. L. (1996). Participation in Congress. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
28.
Jacobson, G. J. (2000). Party polarization in national politics: The electoral connection. In J. Bond& R. Fleisher (Eds.), Polarized politics: Congress and the president in a partisan era (pp. 9-30). Washington, DC: CQ Press.
29.
Killian, L. (1998). The freshman: What happened to the Republican revolution?Boulder, CO: Westview.
30.
Kingdon, J. W. (1973). Congressmen's voting decisions. New York: Harper and Row.
31.
Layman, G. C.,& Carsey, T. M. (2000, April). Ideological realignment in contemporary American politics: The case of party activists. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago.
32.
Levendusky, M. S., Pope, J. C.,& Jackman, S. (2005, July). Measuring district level preferences with implications for the analysis of U.S. elections. Paper presented at the 2005 annual meeting of the Society for Political Methodology, Tallahassee, FL.
33.
Maraniss, D., & Weisskopf, M. (1996). Tell Newt to shut up!New York: Simon & Schuster.
34.
Mayhew, D. R. (1974). Congress: The electoral connection. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
35.
McSweeney, D., & Owens, J. E. (Eds.). (1998). The Republican takeover of Congress. New York: St. Martin's.
36.
Moen, M. C. (1996). The evolving politics of the Christian Right. PS: Political Science & Politics, 29, 461-464.
37.
Oppenheimer, B. (2005). Deep red and blue congressional districts: The causes and consequences of declining party competitiveness. In L. Dodd& B. Oppenheimer (Eds.), Congress reconsidered (8th ed., pp. 135-158). Washington, DC: CQ Press.
38.
Omstein, N. J., & Schenkenberg, A. L. (1995). The 1995 Congress: The first hundred days and beyond. Political Science Quarterly, 110, 183-206.
39.
Owens, J. E. (1997). The return of party government in the US House of Representatives: Central leadership—Committee relations in the 104th Congress. British Journal of Political Science, 27, 247-272.
40.
Rae, N. (1998). Conservative reformers: The Republican freshman and the lessons of the 104th Congress. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.
41.
Regernus, M. D., Sikkink, D., & Smith, C. (1999). Voting with the Christian Right: Contextual and individual patterns of electoral influence. Social Forces, 77, 1375-1401.
42.
Riley, R. L. (1995). Party government and the Contract with America. PS: Political Science and Politics, 28, 703-707.
43.
Rohde, D. W. (1991). Parties and leaders in the postreform House. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
44.
Rozell, M. J., Wilcox, C. (Eds.). (1995). God at the grassroots: The Christian Right in the 1994 elections. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
45.
Sinclair, B. (1999). Transformational leader or faithful agent? Principal-agent theory and House majority party leadership. Legislative Studies Quarterly, 24, 421-449.
46.
Smith, S. S., & Deering, C. J. (1983). Changing motives for committee preferences for new members of the U.S. House. Legislative Studies Quarterly, 8, 271-281.
47.
Tuchfarber, A. J., Bennett, S., Smith, A.,& Rademacher, E. (1995). The Republican tidalwave of 1994: Testing hypotheses about realignment, restructuring, and rebellion. PS: Political Science and Politics, 28, 689-696.
48.
Van Houweling, R. P. (2001). Legislators' personal policy preferences and partisan legislative organization: Special rules in the post-reform house. Unpublished manuscript, Harvard University.
49.
Wilcox, C., Rozell, M. J.,& Coker, J. B. (1995). The Christian Right in the old dominion: Resurgent Republicans or holy war?PS: Political Science & Politics, 28, 15-18.
50.
Wittman, D. (1983). Candidate motivation: A synthesis of alternative theories. American Political Science Review, 77, 142-157.
