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Congressional Party Switchers and Their Environments

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Congressional Party Switchers and Their Environments THE VIEW FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE AISLE: Congressional Party Switchers and their Environments _______________________________________ A Dissertation presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School at the University of Missouri-Columbia _______________________________________________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy _____________________________________________________ by BENJAMIN L. HALL Dr. L. Marvin Overby, Dissertation Supervisor DECEMBER 2013 The undersigned, appointed by the dean of the Graduate School, have examined the dissertation entitled THE VIEW FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE AISLE: Congressional Party Switchers and their Environments presented by Benjamin L. Hall, a candidate for the degree of doctor of philosophy, and hereby certify that, in their opinion, it is worthy of acceptance. Professor L. Marvin Overby Professor Peverill Squire Professor John Petrocik Professor Mitchell McKinney For my parents and for Becky Winkler. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are so many people whose contributions made this project possible. I would like to thank Professor Marvin Overby for his indispensable guidance in this process. Without his advice and input this accomplishment would not have been possible. I also want to thank Professor Peverill Squire for his contributions. I drew on his considerable expertise in determining the appropriate direction of this research. I would also like to thank Professors John Petrocik, Mitchell McKinney, and Bill Benoit for their input and flexibility through this process. In crafting this dissertation I drew on the experiences of several former members of Congress. As such, I want to thank Representatives Michael Forbes, Virgil Goode, Peter Peyser, and Eugene Atkinson as well as Senator Harry Byrd, Jr. Thanks to all my fellow graduate students, especially Paul Bellinger, Nisha Mukherjee Bellinger, Jordan Crawford, and Susan Miller, for their support and encouragement. Special thanks to Paula Dohnal for her editorial efforts and expertise. Thanks to the always helpful political science departmental staff, including Audra Jenkins and Sarah Turner. I want to thank all the scholars whose work laid the foundation for my own. That list includes too many people to name, but among them are Nolan McCarty, Keith Poole, Howard Rosenthal, Timothy Nokken, Antoine Yoshinaka, James Fowler, Keith Krehbiel, Gary Cox, Matthew McCubbins, John Aldrich, and David Rohde. I want to thank those who aided my data collection efforts including staff members in the offices of secretaries of state in Alabama, Colorado, New York, Virginia, Georgia, and Louisiana. I also want to thank the support staff of the Federal Election Commission, who aided me tremendously. Thanks to the leadership and staff of the University of Missouri, who provided the facilities and support to make this project possible. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................ ii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ...............................................................................................v LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................. vi ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... vii Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................1 2. LITERATURE REVIEW..........................................................................................7 Party Switchers: Who Takes the Leap? Cases 3. FUNDRAISING, GEOGRAPHIC CONSTITUENCIES, AND PARTY ..............22 Cases Ben Nighthorse Campbell Rodney Alexander Nathan Deal Michael Forbes Richard Shelby Summary 4. THE SOCIAL ENVIRONMENTS OF PARTY SWITCHERS .............................53 Previous Study of Cosponsorship Theory, Data, and Measurement Results Switchers to the Republican Party Switchers to the Democratic Party Peter Peyser iii Phil Gramm Switchers to Independent Status Party Switching and House Committee Assignments Violations of Committee Seniority Norms for Party Switchers Summary 5. PARTY SWITCHERS IN THEIR OWN WORDS ................................................90 Michael Forbes’s Switch: A Tough Fight in New York Arlen Specter’s Switch: Fighting Off the “Cannibals” Harry F. Byrd Jr.’s Partisan Independence: A Success Story from Virginia Virgil Goode Jr.: Another Winning Approach in Virginia Peter Peyser: More Tension in New York Eugene Atkinson, Ronald Reagan, and the Struggle to Save Steel in Pennsylvania Psychological Impact of Group Membership The Elusive Effects of Political Culture 6. CONCLUSION .....................................................................................................125 Inconsistent Success of Party Switchers Future Research Closing Thoughts BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................136 VITA ................................................................................................................................148 iv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure Page 1. Corporate Receipts for Party Switchers ...................................................................24 2. Labor Receipts for Party Switchers ..........................................................................26 3. Changes in Vote Share Ben Campbell .....................................................................32 Experienced After Becoming a Republican 4. Changes in Vote Share Rodney Alexander ..............................................................37 Experienced After Becoming a Republican 5. Changes in Vote Share Nathan Deal ........................................................................39 Experienced After Becoming a Republican 6. Changes in Vote Share Richard Shelby ...................................................................48 Experienced After Becoming a Republican 7. Composite Cosponsorship Scores for ......................................................................66 Party Switchers (percent Republican), 1980-2013 8. Support Given by Party Switchers ...........................................................................68 to Republican-Sponsored Bills, 1980-2010 9. Support Received by Party Switchers from Republicans, 1980-2013 .....................70 v LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Party Switchers (1947-2013) ....................................................................................15 2. Senate Switchers’ Age at the Time of Defection .....................................................17 3. House Switchers’ Age at the Time of Defection ......................................................18 4. Senate Switchers’ Tenure at the Time of Defection.................................................19 5. House Switchers’ Tenure at the Time of Defection .................................................19 6. Changes in Rodney Alexander’s ..............................................................................36 Labor Union Performance Ratings 7. Correlations Between Changes in Switchers’ ..........................................................49 Vote Shares and Average Partisan Vote 8. Average regional change in electoral support after changing parties ......................50 9. Shifts in composite cosponsorship scores for party switcher ...................................64 10. Comparison of Changes in Support Given and Support Received ..........................69 11. House Committee Assignment Shifts for Party Switchers, 1975-1991 ...................79 12. House Committee Assignment Shifts for Party Switchers, 1995-2011 ...................80 vi ABSTRACT In recent years, numerous congressional scholars have found that political parties matter to members of Congress. Among the powers parties hold are the abilities to stop the passage of bills party leaders oppose, to reward or punish legislators for their behavior, and to protect their members from votes that divide their constituents. In this study I go beyond the role of parties’ direct control of the legislative process to examine how parties matter as part of a legislator’s overall environment. Using members of Congress who have switched parties as a natural experiment, I find that parties influence numerous elements of members’ environments. My results show that a member of Congress who switches parties can expect changes in the geographic makeup of his electoral support, in the types of campaign donors he attracts, and in the social networks in which he operates. I supplement these findings using information gained from interviews with some of the members in question. vii “I’m a loyal Democrat. I support your agenda.” - Arlen Specter, speaking to President Obama, the same day he announced he would become a Democrat 1 Introduction Political partisanship in the United States is a multifaceted phenomenon, affecting aspects of political life from legislative control to electoral organization and public perception of political figures. Across the institutional and organizational dimensions of American partisanship, parties have purportedly declined in power due to developments that include a number of progressive reforms. Consequently, some scholars have questioned whether parties matter to American legislative behavior as anything more than a mechanism for collecting useful information (e.g., Krehbiel 1991; 1993). A wealth of research
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