The Legislative Legacy of Congressional Campaigns

Tracy Sulkin is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She is the author of Issue Politics in Congress, which won the American Political Science Association's Fenno Prize for the best book in legislative studies. Her work has appeared in leading journals such as the American Political Science Review, the Journal of Politics and Legislative Studies Quarterly.

“In this important new book, Tracy Sulkin asks a relatively simple, yet important question in the context of studies on representation: do members of Congress actually follow through on the appeals they make in campaigns once they are elected? Through a careful analysis of individual campaigns and legislative behavior in both the House and Senate, she concludes that the answer is indeed “yes.”.. I encourage anyone interested in legislative accountability and representation to check out this exciting new contribution to the field of legislative studies.” -Jamie Carson, University of Georgia, Congress & the Presidency

• 1. Promises to keep?; 2. Campaigns as signals; 3. Campaign appeals and legislative activity; 4. Mechanisms underlying promise-keeping; 5. Promise-making and promise-keeping on defense and environmental issues; 6. The who, when, and where of follow-through; 7. The electoral implications of promise-keeping; 8. Promises and policymaking; 9. Representation, responsiveness, and the electoral connection.