Congressional relationships are key to understanding power dynamics. Campaign collaborations allow members to leverage resources effectively.
Data & Methods: FEC records from 2010-2016 totaling nearly 3.2 million entries analyzed patterns of electoral collaboration.
Key Collaborators: Members most frequently partnered with:
Party Leadership Role: Notably, party leaders showed frequent collaboration with rank-and-file members across states and parties.
Why It Matters:* These findings suggest campaign alliances significantly shape congressional influence structures. Strategic networking may help explain how representatives achieve their four primary objectives regardless of partisan majorities.
| I Get By With a Little Help from My Friends: Leveraging Campaign Resources to Maximize Congressional Power was authored by Janet Box-Steffensmeier, Benjamin Campbell, Andrew Podob and Seth Walker. It was published by Wiley in AJPS in 2020. |
