PAL-210 U.S. Congress and Lawmaking

Spring Term, 2006 Class Sessions: T/Th 11:40-1:00 in Land Hall

Note: This syllabus will be updated regularly. Please check the online course page at least once a week.

Professor David C. King Course Assistants Littauer 303, 617-495-1665 Derek Mercer (MPP2) Office Hours Tuesdays 9:30 - 11:30 Stephanie Wade (MPP2) Faculty Assistant Kwang Ryu, Littauer 307A

This course will help you become effective working in or dealing with Congress. You will come to understand how legislatures work (and why they sometimes do not work) from two perspectives: the "inside" as a legislator or a legislative staffer, and the "outside" as a lobbyist, reporter, or member of the executive branch.

Legislatures in the United States are very much alike. The differences among them are points along a continuum and not differences in kind. Grasping their differences is easy; understanding what they have in common is more important; this course will prepare you for working in any U.S. legislature, not just the Congress. Furthermore, legislative behavior and the legislative process are very different from their executive and judicial counterparts. What works in the executive branch will not necessarily work in the legislature, and vice versa.

This course is built around a simulation in which students take on the roles of legislators, lobbyists, and journalists. (Link to a copy of the simulation.) At every step in the simulation, students are introduced to relevant theories and insights both from the academic literature and from political practitioners.

Grades will be based on group- and individually-written exercises associated with the simulation (15%), an assessment by your colleagues concerning how well you worked in the simulation (15%), a personal reflections paper, due May 13th, (30%), participation in class discussions (20%), and a March 23rd in-class midterm exam focusing on the readings (20%). Each assignment is graded given points based on the following criteria:

- SIX POINTS: Professional caliber with significant elements of distinction. The work is uniformly on the same level as top professionals in the world of practice. (This grade is rarely given.)

- FIVE POINTS: Professional caliber. The work uniformly meets professional standards, exceeding that expected of students in this course. (This grade is more easily attainable, but not to be expected.)

- FOUR POINTS: Uniformly competent graduate student performance. High-quality work with no shortcomings other than those due to limited experience. Work that clearly exceeds the quality of most student work at the Kennedy School.

- THREE POINTS: Generally competent graduate student performance. While there are no major problems, some aspects of the work could use improvement. Work that is roughly in the range of most student work at the Kennedy School. (This is the grade that most students should expect on most assignments.)

- TWO POINTS: Passably competent graduate student work that is clearly short of professional quality and somewhat below that level of performance expected of Kennedy School graduate students.

- ONE POINT: Major flaws in performance. Below the minimal standard of work expected of Kennedy School graduate students. The points are then weighted by the percentages assigned to each component, and the final total is divided according to the Kennedy School’s required grade distribution, as outlined by the school's academic council. Grades distributions may range as follows: A (10-15%), A- (20-25%), B+ (30-40%), B (20- 25%), B- or lower (5-10%).

Assignments:

2/9: a 1-page personal statement regarding your political motivations (not graded) 2/14: a 1-page Campaign Issues Memo (not graded) 2/21: a 1-page Simulation Personal Biographies (not graded) 2/21: Simulation Committee Preferences Sheet Due (not graded) 2/23: Staffing Exercise (a graded assignment) 3/2: Simulation Bills Due (not graded) 3/14: Simulation Scheduling Exercise (completed in groups, not graded) 3/23: In-class midterm, focusing on the readings. For example questions, click here. 4/6: Simulation Committee Hearings (graded only on participation) 4/13: Simulation Committee Markups (graded only on participation) 4/20: Simulation Committee Reports Due (not graded) 4/25: Simulation Election of the Speaker 4/27: Simulation Legislature in Session (graded only on participation) 5/12: Final “Reflections Paper” Due

Readings are will be handed out in class a week-or-so before they’re supposed to be read. This will save you money because handouts tend to cost a bit less than course packets. There are four required books, three of which are available at the Harvard Coop. Furthermore, I expect you to read Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report and to pay close attention to Roll Call, Governing and State Legislatures, all of which are available in the KSG library.

Books to purchase:

 Congressional Management Foundation. 2004. Setting Course: A Congressional Management Guide. Edition for the 109th Congress. Washington, DC: Congressional Management Foundation. (Note: This book is available through the CMO – it is not available at the Harvard Coop)

 Gary C. Jacobson, 2004. The Politics of Congressional Elections. 6th Edition. New York: Longman.

 Christopher Matthews. 1999. Hardball. 2nd Edition. New York: Touchstone.

 Walter Oleszek. 2004. Congressional Procedures and the Policy Process. 6th Edition. CQ Press. Course Schedule 1. Tuesday, January 31 Shopping Day in Land Auditorium, 11:40-12:10 and 12:25-12:55

2. Thursday, February 2 Introduction to the Constitution, and to each Other.

Readings:  “Senator McGrail and the Death Penalty, KSG Case #825 (to be handed out the day of class)  The U.S. Constitution, Articles 1, 2, 3. (available on the Web, linked here).  Charles Stewart III, “Congress and the Constitutional System,” in Paul J. Quirk & Sarah A. Binder, eds., Institutions of American Democracy: The Legislative Branch. Oxford University Press, 2005.  Ken Nelson. "Some Ethical Tensions I have Experienced as a Minnesota State Legislator." (On line)

How to approach the readings: Please begin journaling your reactions to the course and to the readings. I will not read your journals, but you will find them to be useful when you write the final paper. Please pay close attention to Ken Nelson’s list, and re-read his list throughout the course. We will return to it after the simulation.

3. Tuesday, February 7 The Nature of Politics and Politicians

Reading:  Matthews. Chapters 1-7, 10. (a course text). o “It’s Not Who You Know; It’s Who You Get to Know” o “All Politics is Local” o “It’s Better to Receive Than to Give” o “Dance with the One That Brung Ya” o “Keep Your Enemies in Front of You” o “Don’t Get Mad; Don’t Get Even; Get Ahead” o “Leave No Shot Unanswered” o “Hang a Lantern on Your Problem”

Please come to class prepared to summarize a chapter. Students will be selected at random to present the key ideas in each of the chapters.

Please Attend the Forum Event on Congressional Ethics, at 6pm. There is a dinner after the forum with Norman Ornstein from the American Enterprise Institute. Winners of the dinner lottery are: Sean Carberry, Karen Harmel, Luciano Ortiz, Amy Levin, Lin Yang, Christina Shin, Jonathan Schleifer, David Fogelson, Stephanie Wade, and Dianne Munevar.

4. Thursday, February 9 Individual Motivations and their Connections to Institutional Design

Readings:  Herbert F. Weisberg, Eric S. Heberlig & Lisa M. Campoli, 1999. “What is Representation,” pages 68-82 in Weisberg, Herblig & Campoli, eds. Classics in Congressional Politics. New York: Addison, Wesley, Longman.  Richard F. Fenno, Jr. 1978. Home Style: House Members in Their Districts. Boston: Little Brown. Chapter 1.  David R. Mayhew. 1974. "The Electoral Connection and the Congress," selection from Congress: The Electoral Connection, reprinted in Mathew D. McCubbins & Terry Sullivan, Congress: Structure and Policy. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987.  Richard F. Fenno, Jr. 1973. Congressmen in Committees. Boston: Little Brown. Chapter 1.  Keith T. Poole and Howard Rosenthal, Congress: A Political-Economic History of Roll Call Voting, pgs. 3-26.

How to approach the readings: Please read the Weisberg piece closely, and in light of the Senator McGrail case. Know the strengths and weaknesses of the “trustee/delegate” way of thinking about representation. As you move on to the first Fenno reading, be able to diagram his argument, and contrast it with the categories in the Weisberg reading. Pay particular attention to Mayhew’s brief piece. The arguments in this selection will be important for the midterm. Be able to discuss how the institutional structures in legislatures flow from the simple assumption at the core of Mayhew’s analysis. Are there other institutional implications that Mayhew could have included? Fenno and Mayhew were contemporaries. How does his treatment of “committees” differ from Fenno’s work? Finally, look through (but do not read closely) the Pool and Rosenthal chapter. I will discuss the chapter in class.

Assignment:

Who Are You? Assignment due February 9

Every member's behavior is patterned by the folks back home. Your first assignment is to find a home that "fits" you. Please refer to The Almanac of American Politics or Politics in America to select a congressional district that you’d like to represent in the course simulation. Both are available in the JK1000 section of any good library.

 Due in class 2/9: your personal statement regarding your political motivations. (not to be graded)

Assignment due February 14 This is not a graded assignment

How to write the campaign issues memo. I know that many of you have experience in campaigns, and many of you took Steve Jarding’s class last semester. Nonetheless, I have a very clear sense for what I am looking for in your issues memo. The audience for this memo is an informed but unallied voter in your district. It is not highly targeted. It needs to be a fairly general statement to all informed but unallied potential voters. First, tell me which U.S. Congressional District you are running in. You can review the districts through the Almanac of American Politics (in the library and on-line) or through online access to Congressional Quarterly (www.cq.com). Second, write one paragraph about who you are. This paragraph needs to be a blend of biography (gender, where you came from, other public service) and grand ideology (your worldview in a sentence or two). Third, highlight three (NO more, NO less) key issues. These are often done with bullet points. At LEAST one of these three points must relate, directly, to easily-identifiable interests in your district (delegate representation) and at least one of these three points point to a grander (more trustee) goal. Close with a specific request for support of some kind.

5. Tuesday, February 14 Who runs for Congress? Why do they run? How do they get elected?

Readings:  Jacobson. Chapters 1-5. (a course text) Audio Assignment:  The Annoying Gap Between Theory and Practice: A man gets himself elected to the state legislature to try and make the world a better place, but finds that personal principles and representative democracy aren't always the best fit. Spend three days with Michigan state representative Steve Tobocman. He ran for office because he thought that would be the best way to change things for his neighborhood in Detroit, but his story becomes one about the difficulty of turning abstract ideas into hard cold reality. (Broadcast Date: November 8, 2003. This American Life, WBEZ Radio, Chicago). Representative Tobocoman’s web site is http://house.michigan.gov/rep.asp?DIST=012  Streaming Audio file (use Real Player) at http://www.thisamericanlife.org/ra/250.ram  Go to Act 2. How? Restore Realplayer to Full Screen mode and slide the "clip position" button at the bottom until the clock at the upper right shows 23:40 where the story of the Detroit State Rep. begins.

How to approach the readings: There is a lot of material covered in the Jacobson text, and it is not intended to be a “candidate’s guide” to elections. Read it carefully and with a critical eye. I will ask you to critique the ethics of such a system. And I will ask you to consider how – practically – such a system can be changed. Many of the concepts in the Jacobson book, such as “slurge,” will be on the midterm.

Advice on listening to the Tobocoman radio story: Throughout the piece, really put yourself in Steve Tobocman’s shoes. Ask yourself what you would have done at each major decision point – and be careful to consider all of your options.

Assignment:  Due in class 2/14: Campaign Issues Memo (not graded)

6. Thursday, February 16: Campaign Management

Readings:  Jacobson. Chapter 6. (a course text)  “How to Rig an Election.” The Economist, April 27, 2002. pg. 29-30.  "Jesse Helms v. Harvey Gantt: Race, Culture, and Campaign Strategy," Kennedy School Case # 1099. Epilog will be handed out in class.  Doris Kearns Goodwin. 2005. A Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, New York: Simon & Schuster, pages 87-90.

How to approach the case. This is an old case, but it is still useful. I like it because we get a chance to talk about something other than money. Yes, the power of incumbency is there, but you don’t find both candidates spending all of their time trying to raise resources. Please read the case with “strategy” in mind. What did both campaigns do well? Poorly? Think very carefully about the role of the media in the case. And put yourself in Mel Watt’s shoes at the end of the case. What would you do, and why?

How to approach the readings. Chapter 6 in Jacobson highlights times when congressional elections have been “nationalized.” Be able to talk about the 1994 Republican victories in the House, as well as the congressional elections since 9/11. Is it possible to “nationalize” the elections given current redistricting schemes? To what extent should we even want congressional elections to be driven by overarching national trends? The Kearns Goodwin selection is a joy to read, and I included it to show the timeless techniques that Lincoln used. Imagine helping a candidate today. What could/would you do to improve on the voter identification/mobilization approaches that Lincoln employed?

7. Tuesday, February 21: Working with Staff

Readings:  Setting Course: A Congressional Management Guide. 2004. Chapters 11-13, 16 (a course text) Assignment:  Due in class 2/21 Personal Biographies and Committee Preferences (not a graded assignment) Guest:  Al Felzenberg, “Working on Capitol Hill”

How to approach the readings. The “Setting Course” readings are practical and straight forward. Use them as reference when you devise a staffing plan for class on Thursday. You will not be held accountable for these four chapters for the mid-term exam. The rest of “Setting Course” is fair game for the mid-term, however.

8. Thursday, February 23: Seniority, Power, Roles and Understanding the Clout of the Leadership

Readings:  Setting Course, Chapter 9 (a course text)  David Gergen. 2003. "Stubborn Kind of Fellow", Compass: A Journal of Leadership, Fall, (Cambridge: Center for Public Leadership), pp. 14-17, 21.  John Manley. 1969. "Wilbur D. Mills: A Study in Congressional Influence.” American Political Science Review. 63 (June 1969): 442-464.  Nannerl O. Keohane. 2005. “On Leadership.” Perspectives on Politics. 3 (December 2005): 705- 722.

How to approach the readings. Chapter 9 of “Setting Course” is the one you will remember most a few years from now. Please read it carefully and be able to talk about the five roles that Members tend to adopt. Likewise, the Manley reading on Mills is likely to be something you remember for years. Pay attention to his leadership style, and ask whether he was “powerful” in a classic sense. Be sure to integrate your reading of Manley with the “three faces of power” concept from the class discussion. Finally, I added the Keohane reading because of her skillful reference to so much of the leadership literature, and because she is self-conscious in describing the dangers of letting “power” go to one’s head.

Assignment:  Due in class 2/23: Staffing Exercise (this is a graded assignment)

Staffing Assignment due February 23 This is a graded assignment

You do not have to hand in this assignment, but you should be prepared to show your staffing sheets in class. You should rely on the Congressional Staff Directory, available in the KSG library, as a guide when deciding how to split staff between home and Washington.

Review Setting Course before completing this assignment.

1. Each Member is entitled to an annual clerk hire allowance for employment of staff in the Member's Washington, DC Congressional and District office(s). The Clerk Hire Allowance for the 109th Congress is $702,138. 2. Each Member may appoint, at any one time, up to 22 employees to his or her clerk hire payroll. Eighteen may be appointed as permanent full time employees and four as non-permanent employees (less than 15 working days per month). A Member may "employ" as many non-paid interns as he or she sees fit. 3. Each employee of a Member shall be compensated monthly at a single per annum gross rate of pay which is not less than $1,200, nor more than the highest rate of pay, as in effect from time to time, of Level V of the Executive Schedule. The highest rate of basic pay for Level V is $117,600. 4. In a two-page memo to your new staff, outline the organization of your office. Some, but not all, of the questions you may wish to address include: Who will be responsible for various issue areas of concern? Who will answer the mail? How will you divide your staff between Washington and the home district? Who controls the flow of paper and people into your own office? Who can enter your office without some approval? Who handles the press? Who can sign in your name? 5. Attach a list of staff, by position, to the memo. Please use the following format:

JOB DESCRIPTION STATUS ANNUAL SALARY ``````` ```````` ```````` ``````` ```````` ```````` ``````` ```````` ```````` ------TOTAL PAYROLL

JOB DESCRIPTION simply means job title. The possibilities include, but are not limited to: administrative aide, legislative assistant, staff assistant, legislative correspondent, intern, press secretary, legislative director, counsel, secretary, office manager, personal secretary, receptionist, case worker, district chief, part-time employee, administrative secretary, clerk, field representative, special assistant, etc. The staff member's duties should be clear from the memorandum.

STATUS: Permanent or Non-permanent; Washington or in-district.

ANNUAL SALARY: annual gross salary, subject to the limitations listed above.

TOTAL PAYROLL: the total amount of your clerk hire allowance you plan to spend.

The KSG Library has recent Congressional Staff Directories. You should take a look at them. You'll find that every legislator divides up responsibilities a little differently. Some emphasize service to their districts. Others concentrate on beltway politics. Most do a little of both. Whatever decisions you make, justify the tradeoffs.

9. Tuesday, February 28 Understanding the Roles and Clout of Committees

Readings:  Oleszek, Chapter 3 (a course text).  David King. 1997. Turf Wars. University of Chicago Press. Chapter 2.  Setting Course, Chapters 1-7. (a course text)

How to approach the readings: You can breeze through most of “Setting Course,” but pay particular attention to the discussion on committee assignments in Chapter 2. This is not well-understood by most congressional observers. You should read the Oleszek chapter very closely. Memorize it if possible. A hint, too: if you have the time, read ahead in Oleszek right now. The materials need to be read a few times to be absorbed. I hope that you enjoy Chapter 2 of Turf Wars. It will give you a sense for a concept that I emphasized earlier in the course – namely that institutions should be thought of as endogenous.

10. Thursday, March 2 Coalitions Readings:  David C. King & Richard L. Zeckhauser. "Congressional Vote Options." (available online)

How to approach the readings: This is an easy read. I want to give you some breathing space because you have an assignment due today for the simulation, and because I hope that some of you are reading ahead in the Oleszek book. Our guest in class today will be Blair Williams, a Ph.D. student at the Kennedy School. He’ll discuss the role of caucuses and social groups in coalition formation.

Assignment:  Due in class 3/2: Individual Bills for the simulation (not a graded assignment)

Guest in Class today: Blair Williams

Introduce your Bill due March 2 This is not a graded assignment

Turn in your individual bills. They will be referred to committees within 24 hours.

People who are told they will be journalists or lobbyists do not need to file individual bills.

After you know your committee assignments, you will file a bill. No bill should be longer than one page. Give your bill a title and a budget. Following are some suggested issues. This list is suggestive, not exhaustive. Originality and creativity are encouraged:

prepaid legal insurance; gun control; legalizing drugs; authorizing needle exchange programs; regulating surrogate mothering; public financing of elections; protecting journalists from revealing sources; mandatory sentencing; taxing tax-exempt property; opening public access to shore front property; nuclear construction moratorium; requiring insurance companies to cover new health therapies; reforming the Rules of the Legislature; state financing of public schools; reducing the cost of campaigns; parental choice in school selection; incentive pay for teachers; siting for solid waste disposals; and taxing non-biodegradable containers.

Perhaps the most important consideration in your decision is whether the idea of the bill creates a genuine controversy within your committee. We do not want to see many mushy "everyone will agree" bills. We are a national legislature. Your bills should be sensitive to the national mood. No initial bill may be longer than a page. The Speaker will assign your bill to a committee. Each Member has a stake in his or her bill advancing as far as possible in the process. So the next task for each Member is to convince the committee to focus on his or her bill.

Evening Event: Please, if you are able, attend the Forum Event at 6pm on Monday, March 6. The guest will be David Walker, Comptroller General of the U.S. For more on Mr. Walker and GAO, please click here.

11. Tuesday March 7 Authorizing Committees vs. Appropriations Subcommittees

Readings:  Oleszek, Chapter 2 (a course text)  “Buying the Beretta” 1988. John F. Kennedy School of Government Case 848. Parts A&B  Deschler’s Precedents (spend at least 1 hour exploring any section online)  House: Legislative Process (available on-line) In the Simulation: Bills will be assigned to Committees Today

Optional Opportunity, with Dotty Lynch in L166 from 4:5:30 today, March 2: Guest Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report, talks about the 2006 campaigns and key races in the House and Senate.

12. Thursday, March 9 Rules and Procedures

Readings:  Oleszek, Chapters 3-8 (a course text)  Mickey Edwards. 1983. “Decision-Making in Washington: A Rule of Thumb,” pages 63-5 in Behind Enemy Lines, Chicago: Regnery Gateway.

Additional Session Scheduled by your Committees, preferably on Friday, March 10:  Complete in your groups before the next class: Scheduling Exercise (to be discussed in class on 3/14). Please plan on meeting with your committee members from 4-6pm. Lobbyists and Journalists in the simulation will also meet separately.

How to approach the readings: The Oleszek chapters are dense. But they are also crucial to doing well on the midterm. It will not be enough for you to have friends simply outline these chapters. You will need to internalize them. As you read the rules, pay particular attention to two things: House-Senate differences, and when/why the rules are waved.

13. Tuesday, March 14 Time Management

Readings:  Setting Course, Chapter 15 (a course Text) Assignment:  Due in Class 3/14: Scheduling Exercise (not a graded assignment)

14. Thursday, March 16 Executive-Congressional Relations

Readings:  Cary Coglianese. 2004. “The Rulemaking Process,” pgs. 5-11 in Coglianese, “E-Rulemaking: Information and Technology,” Center for Business and Government, John F. Kennedy School of Government.  Terry M. Moe & William G. Howell. 1999. "The Presidential Power of Unilateral Action." Journal of Law, Economics & Organization. 15:132-79.

How to approach the readings: Glance through the Coglianese reading, because it will be important for the “Mud Flaps” case next Tuesday. Focus, very carefully, on the Moe and Howell reading. Note that their analysis of presidential power contrasts with the “Presidential power is the power to persuade” approach in Richard Neustadt’s Presidential Power. This article will almost certainly be on the mid-term, and you need to outline it as you read it. Think, also, about the domestic surveillance program in the context of both the Moe-Howell piece and our earlier discussions about Articles I and II of the U.S. Constitution. Optional Opportunity: with Dotty Lynch in L166 from 4:5:30 today, March 16, guest Ellen Malcolm, Founder and President of Emily’s List will discuss Democratic strategy in 2006 with a particular focus on women voters and women candidates.

15. Tuesday, March 21 Lobbying: The Power and Leverage of Special Interests

Readings:  Ernest & Elisabeth Wittenberg. 1994. How to Win in Washington. 2nd Edition. Cambridge: Blackwell. Chapters 1 & 2.  "The Regulation of Mud Flaps," Kennedy School Case Study. (Epilogue to be handed out in class).

Preparing for the Midterm (next class):

This exam will be in-class, closed-book. Questions will be selected from the following list, and the test will take about 30 minutes of class time on Thursday, March 23rd. You may prepare in groups for the following questions, but you must take the test without notes.

What are the component parts of committee reports, and how are the reports used by the full chamber and by the courts? (10 minutes)

How many Appropriations Subcommittees are in the House and the Senate? (1 minute)

Name the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, the House Ways and Means Committee, and the Senate Finance Committee. (1 minute)

Contrast the views of Fenno and Mayhew with respect to the structure of Congress that flows from their assumptions about the motivations of legislators. (8 minutes)

Explain what a president’s “Implied Powers” are in Article II and how it may conflict with the powers of Congress in Article I. Give a current example, and cite at least two Supreme Court cases that might apply to the example. (8 minutes)

Rights of the minority party tend to be at greatest peril when the margins are closest in legislatures. Why? (3 minutes)

Agenda setting in the Senate depends mightily on Unanimous Consent Agreements. What are UCAs? (5 minutes)

Name at least four consequences that flow from the institution of UCAs. (7 minutes).

Compare and contrast the five roles that legislators tend to take (Setting Course Chapter 9) with the primary motivations or roles discussed by Mayhew (1974) and Fenno (1973). (10 minutes):

What does Matthews mean when he says that in politics, “It is better to receive than to give” ? (5 minutes):

List the exclusive committees in the House of Representatives. (1minute)

Explain the procedure and justification for each of these steps. 1. Adoption of the rule granted by the Rules Committee. (3 minutes) 2. The act of resolving the House into the Committee of the Whole (2 minutes) 3. General debate. (2 minutes) 4. The amending process. (6 minutes) 5. The motion to recommit. (4 minutes)

Explain the basic differences between “trustee” and “delegate” representation. (5 minutes)

Define “slurge.” (1 minute)

Explain the increase in “slurge” from the Mayhew perspective. (4 minutes)

Explain why executive orders are issued and how Congress can overturn them or limit their impact. (10 minutes).

What is an executive order? (3 minutes)

What do these stand for: OMB, CBO, GAO. (1 minute)

Please outline the budget process in the U.S. Congress. Discuss strengths. Discuss one specific weakness and propose a reform to address that weakness. (13 minutes)

What are “hip pocket votes” and how are they used? (2 minutes)

How have the use of (and rules regarding) filibusters changed since the early 1970s? (4 minutes)

When presidents veto legislation, under what conditions does this indicate presidential strength, and under what conditions does this indicate presidential weakness? (5 minutes)

16. Thursday, March 23 Midterm and Lobbying: Best Practices

Midterm Exam The midterm exam will be administered IN CLASS and over a 30-minute period. It will be a closed-book exam, but you will have all of the questions in advance, so you can prepare for the exam and write sample answers. You just can’t have the sample answers in front of you during the 30-minute exam period. The exam accounts for 20% of your course grade.

The midterm will be over by 12:15, at which time we will be joined in class by Chuck Lewis, Founder of the Center for Public Integrity. He’ll talk about lobbying techniques, campaign resources, and take your questions related to the ideas in today’s readings.

Readings:  John Zorack, The Lobbying Handbook, 1990, “Perspectives on Lobbying,” pgs. 779-791.

Optional Opportunity: with Dotty Lynch in L166 from 4:5:30 today, March 23, guest Carl Forti, Communications Director of the National Republican Congressional Committee, will discuss Republican strategies for the 2006 midterm elections.

Spring Break – March 25 through April 2

17. Tuesday, April 4 Lobbying: An Overview from the Lobbyists in the Simulation and Partisanship: a view from Juliet Eilperin There are two topics to cover in class today. First, we’ll hear from the five lobbyists, as they make presentations in preparation for the Thursday committee hearings. Second, Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post will be in the class to talk about polarization and her new book, Fight Club Politics.

Readings:  David C. King. "Congress, Polarization, and Fidelity to the Median Voter." March 10, 2003.  Juliet Eilperin. “You Can’t Have a Great Election without any Races,” Washington Post, November 13, 2005, pg. B13. (link on the Web)

How to Approach the Reading: I want you to think carefully about differences between “within district” polarization and “within Congress” polarization. I do not, in my old article, make much of a distinction between types of representation, but I’m obviously using NOMINATE scores, which implies a kind of representation model. What are the strengths and weaknesses of this approach? I will be especially interested in hearing your comments on ways that polarization might be decreased. What kinds of institutional or electoral “fixes” might we want to consider?

18. Thursday, April 6 Simulation: Committee Hearings

Commerce Committee: L330/Herzog Justice Committee: L380/Watkins Foreign Affairs Committee: Taubman 301 Energy Committee: Taubman 401 Health Committee: Carr Center Conference room (2nd floor of Rubenstein)

Optional Opportunity: with Dotty Lynch in L166 from 4:5:30 today, April 6, guest Mandy Grunwald, Media Consultant for Senator Hillary Clinton and NH Governor John Lynch will discuss the 2006 gubernatorial elections.

19. Tuesday, April 11 Working with the Media

Readings:  Setting Course, Chapter 14 (a course text)

Guest Lecturer: Kenneth Cooper, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist

First issue of Role Call Newspaper comes out today.

Note: I will be in Washington, DC this day, and the class will be run by Ken Cooper. As a group, you’ll go through the first issue of Role Call and Ken Cooper will discuss how legislators (and their offices) can/should work with the media.

20. Thursday, April 13 Simulation: Committee Markups

Commerce Committee: L330/Herzog Justice Committee: L380/Watkins Foreign Affairs Committee: Taubman 301 Energy Committee: Taubman 401 Health Committee: Carr Center Conference room (2nd floor of Rubenstein)

Optional Opportunity: with Dotty Lynch in L166 from 4:5:30 today, April 13, guest Emily Lazar, a producer for the Steven Colbert Show will discuss political humor.

21. Tuesday, April 18 Parties and Partisanship

Readings:  Jacobson, Chapters 7 & 8 (a course text)  “Catastrophic Health Insurance for the Elderly,” KSG Case # 1278

20. Thursday, April 20

Overseeing Bureaucracies

Readings:  Oleszek, Chapter 9 (a course text)

Due in class 4/20 – Committee Reports. (not graded assignment)

Second issue of Role Call Newspaper is out today.

22. Tuesday, April 25 Simulation: Election of the Speaker

The Speaker shall select a rules committee, with members from each party and each committee. The committee shall meet and distribute a legislative schedule for the meeting on April 27. Participants in the Rules process should expect to work continuously from Tuesday through Thursday night. Please plan accordingly.

23. Thursday, April 27 Simulation: The Legislature is in Session.

4pm until done – in Starr Auditorium We will not be meeting during the regular class time. Party caucuses should meet to plan session strategies.

24. Tuesday, May 2 Debriefing the Simulation.

This will be an important exercise, and I want you to come to class ready to discuss, in detail, what you felt, and what you learned, in the simulation. Pay particular attention to how the feelings that emerged through the simulation may (or may not) change your view of the descriptions of legislatures that dominated the first half of the course. Also pay close attention to what “made for a good leader” in the course and speculate about whether those characteristics and behaviors can generalize beyond the course.

25. Thursday, May 4 Individual and Institutional Ethics.

Readings:  Dennis Thompson. 1995. Ethics in Congress. Washington, DC: Brookings. Chapter 1.  Ken Nelson. "Some Ethical Tensions I have Experienced as a Minnesota State Legislator." Friday, May 5.

Closing dinner at Professor King’s house. 190 Prospect Street, Belmont. 6 to 9pm.

Please bring something “real” to eat and to share with the group. I’ll have soft drinks and sweets.

Note: The Final Paper is due L303 by 5pm on Friday, May 12.