Rather than long-serving and powerful elected officials diverting attention from constituents, their increased capacity enables them to maintain levels of constituency service, even as they prioritize policy work.
We find that legislators prioritize policy work as they gain institutional power, but simultaneously maintain their levels of constituency service. Moreover, when a new legislator replaces an experienced legislator, the district receives less constituency service AND less policy work.
We assembled a massive new database of over 600k legislator requests to a near census of federal departments, agencies & subagencies between 2007 and 2020.
In the paper we examine when elected officials gain power, do they use it to provide more constituent service or to affect policy? To answer the question we worked for nearly a decade (!) to collect data from Federal Agencies about every time Members of Congress (or their staff) contact them.
Thrilled to share that my paper with @judgelord.bsky.social and Justin Grimmer:"How shifting priorities and capacity affect policy work and constituency service: Evidence from a census of legislator requests to U.S. federal agencies" is out at the AJPS!
Looking for a post-doc? The University of Wisconsin-Madison just announced a Pluralism Postdoctoral Fellows Program! 2 year post-doc. Deadline March 30, 2026. Seeking scholars who: contribute intellectual diversity, examine pluralism & civic engagement, bridge differences & advance civil discourse.
So much credit! 😂
Awesome! Thanks, Danny.
I'm in the process of designing UW-Madison's first field seminar in American politics for Ph.D. students! Yes... we're late to the party, but, hey, we're here now! Anyone have example syllabi or suggestions of topics/readings to include? Requisite cute Fletcher photo for 👀.
Thank you! I really appreciate the suggestion and will pass it on to my students. This is a great alternative until the census tool is ... whatever it will be. FWIW, the census tool seems to be mostly back up and running, but a handful of districts still produce an error.
That is a baffling twist. Completely agree that at this stage too early to know whether it's a temporary error or deliberate removal.
Were you actually able to retrieve data? For me the website appears to be functional, but it is when I actually select a congressional district and try to access the data that I receive the error message.
!!!
Welp, the US Census's My Congressional District Tool appears to be down. My Congress class was able to look up demographic info about their districts this morning. If you try to retrieve info now it says "The data you requested is not currently available."
www.census.gov/mycd
Looking for a great RA for the 2025-2026 academic year? I know a smart senior double-majoring in Political Science & Data Science who wants to RA for a year before starting her Ph.D. She python and R skills & interested in American & Comparative -- Elections, Voting Behavior & Political Parties!
. @pollsandvotes.bsky.social: The Marquette Law School poll of registered voters in Wisconsin shows a time series of party identification over time. Showing a modest but growing Republican advantage over the last year.
.@pollsandvotes.bsky.social: Marquette Law School Poll has consistently asked registered Wisconsin voters about their family situation. Striking decline in WI voters reporting that they are living comfortably since late 2020.
.@pollsandvotes.bsky.social: Striking decline in majority Latino wards in Wisconsin for D presidential candidates. Consistent with Bernard Fraga's presentation earlier in the day.
Really interesting discussion from @pollsandvotes.bsky.social showing college voting wards in Wisconsin. Modest Republican shift in university areas, suggesting possible modest student shift rightward.
The great @pollsandvotes.bsky.social providing the deep dive on Wisconsin 2024 election data. The figure on the right shows ward level change in vote share for Trump between 2020 and 2024. Only tiny shifts at the ward level: incredibly stable presidential vote choice in 2020 and 2024 in Wisconsin.
So great to have @francoordonez.bsky.social here at the Elections Research Center 2024 Election Symposium @uwmadison.bsky.social sharing his insights from the campaign trail on the 2024 election!
Prof. Bernard Fraga presenting "Shifting Right or Sitting Out? Black & Latino Voters: 2016-2024." Shows very large shift to GOP by Black men, continued shift to GOP by Latinos & Latinas. Some evidence of Democrats' base staying home in 2024. #ERC2024ElectionSymposium
Prof. Lynn Vavreck showing survey data about individual voters changing views over time. Argues big shift happened in 2016. Gradual (tectonic shifts) were happening before that.
Prof. Lynn Vavreck arguing that New Deal Era of conflict is over. We have identity-inflected policies are shaping the political landscape. Harder to compromise about identity issues rather than economic issues.
Prof. Lynn Vavreck presenting on The 2024 Election: Calification and Campaign Dynamics
Barry Burden showing late deciding voters broke for Trump. Also an explanation for why polls slightly favored Harris relative to outcome. #ERCElectionSymposium2024
Barry Burden presenting three views of the election: A crazy events driven roller coaster, a standard election explained by traditional political science theories, or a hybrid of standard and events.
Barry Burden kicking off the Election Research Center 2024 Symposium with a recap of election results, and some early explanations
Today's my favorite post-election tradition! The Election Research Center at the UW is hosting our Election Symposium! We have an all-star panel of: @pollsandvotes.bsky.social, Lynn Vavreck, @bfschaffner.bsky.social, @francoordonez.bsky.social, and Bernard Fraga!
elections.wisc.edu/2024symposium/
They say "classification based on a model of vote choice in prior Times/Siena polls) by whether the respondent’s race is modeled as white or nonwhite (L2 model)." What does that mean in a predominantly white state like Wisconsin??? 2/2