House Members' Communication Styles: Newsletters and Press Releases

The literature on Congress offers no systematic analysis of representatives' communications with their constituents. This paper argues that such communications constitute an important linkage between representative and represented and, as such, are indicators of House members' interelection reelection strategies. Mayhew's categories of member activities were used for classifying communication styles in House members' newsletters and press releases; however, in order to delineate styles which discriminate among members in different electoral circumstances, it proved necessary to modify those categories to include consideration of geographic focus. The distinction between nationally oriented and locally oriented position taking was found to be particularly important. Thus, communication style was found to be a function of district and member characteristics; more ideologically extreme members from affluent suburban districts emphasize position taking on national issues; while relatively senior members from poor districts tend to present a particularized credit-claiming style.

[1]  Congressmen and their communication practices , 1958 .

[2]  David G. Davies,et al.  The Theory of Public Finance , 1960 .

[3]  H. McClosky,et al.  Issue Conflict and Consensus among Party Leaders and Followers , 1960, American Political Science Review.

[4]  The Amateur Democrat , 1962 .

[5]  James F. Wilson,et al.  The Amateur Democrat , 1962 .

[6]  A. Wildavsky.  The Goldwater Phenomenon: Purists, Politicians, and the Two-Party System , 1965, The Review of Politics.

[7]  Leo M. Snowiss.  Congressional Recruitment and Representation , 1966, American Political Science Review.

[8]  R. F. Gilbert,et al.  Small Sample Properties of Alternative Estimators of Seemingly Unrelated Regressions , 1968 .

[9]  John S. Saloma.  Congress and the new politics , 1969 .

[10]  O. Holsti.  Content Analysis for the Social Sciences and Humanities , 1969 .

[11]  John W. Kingdon.  Congressmen's voting decisions , 1973 .

[12]  David R. Mayhew.  Congressional Elections: The Case of the Vanishing Marginals , 1974, Polity.

[13]  David R. Mayhew.  Congress: The Electoral Connection , 1975 .

[14]  J. Ferejohn,et al.  Pork Barrel Politics: Rivers and Harbors Legislation, 1947-1968 , 1975 .

[15]  Morris P. Fiorina,et al.  Representatives, roll calls, and constituencies , 1974 .

[16]  Pork Barrel Politics: Rivers and Harbors Legislation, 1947–68 . By Ferejohn John A.. (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1974. Pp. 288. $12.50.) , 1977 .

[17]  Morris P. Fiorina,et al.  Congress, keystone of the Washington establishment , 1977 .

[18]  The Politics of representation : the Democratic Convention 1972 , 1977 .

[19]  Richard F. Fenno.  Home Style : House Members in Their Districts , 1978 .

[20]  J. Kuklinski,et al.  The Delegate Theory of Representation , 1979 .

[21]  Albert D. Cover.  Contacting Congressional Constituents: Some Patterns of Perquisite Use , 1980 .