Frances E. Lee - Insecure Majorities: Congress and the Perpetual Campaign

In writing this book, I have incurred numerous debts. Most importantly, this book would not have been possible without the generosity of the former and current congressional staffers and members who sat down with me for interviews. They gave freely of their time to answer my questions, even though they had many more important things to do. Several also put me in touch with other interview subjects who had backgrounds or experiences relevant to my project. Their perspectives and insights tremendously enriched my understanding of congressional politics and shaped the book in innumerable ways.

I am grateful to the University of Maryland and the Government and Politics Department for supporting my research. A sabbatical and a Research and Scholarship Award from the graduate school together gave me a year off from teaching responsibilities in order to research and write. I had fantastic research support from Kelsey Hinchliffe (coauthor of ). I had great help tracking down sources from Judy Markowitz and other staff at McKeldin Library. I benefited repeatedly from feedback at the departments American Politics Workshop and from many graduate students in the program, especially Mike Parrott. Mike Hanmer offered key methodological assistance. Jim Gimpel, Irwin Morris, Stella Rouse, Kris Miler, and Lily Mason provided valuable comments. I particularly thank my colleagues David Karol and Ric Uslaner, who read the entire manuscript and helped improve it in many ways large and small.

I have also had much help from beyond my home institution. Walter Oleszek gave me access to his amazing archives at the Congressional Research Service, along with much great advice. Bruce Oppenheimer pressed me to get outside the comfort of my office to interview Capitol Hill insiders. Matt Green offered good counsel on conducting interviews. Richard Forgette shared his data on the frequency of party meetings in the House of Representatives.

This book took shape in response to the comments and criticisms I received at workshops and presentations over the past five years, including at UC Berkeley, the University of Chicago, Northwestern, the University of Minnesota, Stanford, the University of North Carolina, Oxford, Yale, the University of Texas, UC San Diego, UC Davis, the University of Illinois, Cornell, and the annual meetings of the Midwest Political Science Association. I especially benefited from the Congress and History Conferences at Columbia and Vanderbilt. I cannot adequately thank the many people whose remarks and questions in these settings helped me improve this project, but Id like to single out Mo Fiorina, Rick Valelly, Tony Madonna, Adam Myers, and Collin Paschall, who each provided thoughtful discussant comments. I also thank Brian Gaines for suggesting the idea for .

For feedback on key parts of this project, I thank Eric Schickler, Jenny Mansbridge, David Broockman, and Daniel Stid. I owe very special thanks to the scholars outside my home institution who read complete drafts of the book: David Mayhew, Sam Kernell, and Jim Curry. Their comments sharpened the analysis and saved me from numerous errors. The reports from the anonymous readers secured by University of Chicago Press were also tremendously helpful.

I am grateful to my longtime editor John Tryneski, whose guidance made this a better book and whose enthusiasm for the project continually encouraged me to get it done. I also thank others at the press, especially Rodney Powell and Jillian Tsui. For expert and careful copyediting, I thank Daniel King.

This book would never have come together without the love and support of my family. My husband, Emery, read and commented on everything, as he has ever since the first paper I wrote in graduate school. My daughter, Beverly, inspires me daily with her humor, cheerfulness, and curiosity. Both Emery and Beverly have tolerated me putting in too much time at the office working on this book. It is dedicated to them.