Jasper Long

Thesis Title: 

Staff Connections in Congress: A Quantitative Analysis into the Influence of Congressional Staff on Partisan Polarization 

In the age of congressional polarization, much of the scholarly effort has focused on the congresspeople and their legislative behavior, while too little discussion is paid to the thousands of congressional staffers who often shoulder a great many responsibilities and affect everything from voting behavior to partisan communications. This thesis seeks to understand the extent of the influence of congressional staff on their principals in Congress over the last 10 years.

Focusing on the US Senate, this thesis evaluates their partisanship via roll-call votes, examined through the DW-NOMINATE method, and by the content of their press releases, examined via a self-designed press release partisanship score. Using the spatial autoregressive model previously used by Professors Jacob Montgomery and Brendan Nyhan of Dartmouth University, this thesis examines whether Senators who shared staff ties are more similar to one another than is expected and discuss the implications of its findings along with further questions.

First Thesis Advisor:  Professor Richard Arenberg

Visiting Professor of the Practice of Political Science

Second Thesis Advisor:  Professor Ross Cheit

Professor of Political Science, Director of Undergraduate Studies