Previous research indicates that women candidates may more easily gain elected office by aligning themselves with issues that the public associates favorably with women, such as health care, education, and children's and women's rights. But this strategy may be more or less successful depending...

In 2000, as part of Tony Blairﾒs promised devolution of British government, an election was held for a newly created political office: The Mayor of Greater London. After being denied the Party nomination, Labour MP Ken Livingstone chose to run as an independent candidate and was expelled from...

To date, fifteen states have implemented term limits for state legislators. Despite initial expectations that term limits would increase opportunities for female candidates by reducing the benefits associated with male incumbency advantage, the evidence indicates that term limits have not had...

Studies of voting behavior in advanced industrial societies have demonstrated that voters rely on a plethora of information sources, including retrospective evaluations of parties, party identification and strong social networks, in making complex voting decisions. However, there is less...

While spatial modelers assume that citizens evaluate parties based on their policy positions, empirical research on American politics suggests that citizens' party support often drives their policy preferences, rather than vice-versa. Building on previous findings that partisanship is less...

In 2006, Washington State adopted a"Top-Two" primary system in which the top two vote getters, regardless of party affiliation, advance to the general election. The new primary system created a non-partisan primary but allowed candidates to describe their "political party preference". The state...

Do ballot access laws have a significant affect on aggregate levels of voter turnout in American states? This research tests the impact of ballot access laws on state-level voter turnout. It is theorized that the more difficult it is for third parties to gain access to the ballot, the more...

Most analyses of congressional voting, whether theoretical or empirical, treat all roll call votes in the same way. We argue that such approaches mask considerable variation in voting behavior across different categories of votes. An examination of all recorded roll call votes in the U.S. House...

This paper examines the unique contributions women have made in Missouri politics from its transition from territory to statehood to the present through qualitative analysis of biographical accounts and personal interviews. I argue that Missouri women in state and national level politics have...