THE DEMOCRATIC AND REPUBLICAN GOVERNORS ASSOCIATIONS AND THE NATIONALIZATION OF AMERICAN PARTY POLITICS Anthony Sparacino Doctoral Candidate The Woodrow Wilson Department of Politics University of Virginia
[email protected] TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements 3 List of Tables and Figures 4 Introduction: Governors in a Nationalized Party System 5 Chapter 1: A Theory of National Gubernatorial Party Organizations 25 Chapter 2: Governors and National Politics Before the National Gubernatorial Party Organizations 54 Chapter 3: Beyond a Decentralized Party System: Origins of the Republican Governors Association, 1960-1968 91 Chapter 4: The Republican Governors Association in a Nationalizing Party System, 1969-1980 134 Chapter 5: Republican Governors as National Programmatic Partisans, 1981-2000 179 Chapter 6: The Seeds and Stunted Development of the Democratic Governors Conference, 1961- 1980 226 Chapter 7: The Democrats Catch Up: The DGA and the Integration of the Democratic Party, 1981-2000 279 Conclusion: Partisan Governors Associations in a Polarized Era, 2000-Present 325 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project would not have been possible save for a tremendous amount of support, encouragement, and feedback. First, I wish to thank my family. Dad’s interest in politics inspired my own from an early age. Mom always was willing to listen and offer support and encouragement. Both of them provided reassurance in my decision to attend graduate school and were there for me every step of the way. Second, I wish to thank my outstanding dissertation committee. Sidney Milkis, James Ceaser and James Savage have been outstanding, compassionate, and able advisors and have offered more support and inspiration, through their scholarship and personal interactions with me, than I could have ever expected or hoped for.