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My dissertation addresses the question of how increasing party polarization in the U.S. Congress over the last decade influences policy through bicameral negotiations in conference committees. In doing so the project uses the conference process to advance topics within political science such as the role of political parties in shaping policy, bicameralism, and the politics of congressional earmarks. As a whole, the project contributes to a literature that has remained relatively untouched for fifteen years by offering an updated view of contemporary conference politics in a polarized legislative process. While my research into conference politics currently consumes much of my research time, other projects I am working on spill into areas such as congressional voting behavior, elections and representation, race and politics, and public opinion.

With respect to congressional voting behavior I have worked on papers related to members' decisions to abstain on certain types of votes, the extent to which vote context is related to a liberal-conservative agenda over the last eighty years, and rogue members of Congress. Another project connects demographic measures of members' constituencies to their voting behavior in Congress and electoral decisions. I have also been a co-author on a textbook chapter on the grassroots organization of African-Americans during the forty years before the Civil Rights Act as well as a paper contrasting the presidential bids of Shirley Chisholm and Carol Moseley-Braun. All of these projects ultimately trace back to my desire to utilize logic and statistics to pose and investigate questions about real world politics.

Selected papers

• "Conference committees, Partisanship, and Pork Barrel Politics: An Exploration of Earmarks in Appropriations Bills from the 110th Congress"

• "Partisan Trends in Bicameral Negotiations: A roll-call analysis over time"

• "When good predictions go bad: Vote context, win margins, and misclassified votes in the 75th to 108th Congresses" (with David Rohde -- A subscription to the SSRN network may be required)

• "Party and Constituency in the U.S. Senate, 1933-2004" in Why Not Parties? Nathan W. Monroe, Jason M. Roberts, and David Rohde, eds. with John Aldrich, Scott de Marchi, Ian McDonald, Brendan Nyhan, David Rohde, and Michael Tofias)

• "Between and Rock and a Hard Place: Strategic Abstention and Vote Type in the U.S. Congress" (with Ian McDonald)

• "The Dynamics of Partisan Behavior: CPG in the House and in the Districts 1982-2000" (with John Aldrich, Scott de Marchi, Ian McDonald, Brendan Nyhan, David Rohde, and Michael Tofias)

• "Gender and Black Presidential Politics: From Chisholm to Moseley Braun" in Journal of Women, Politics, and Policy (27):1/2 (with Paula D. McClain and Niambi Carter)

• "Left versus Rights? Liberal Values, Threat, and Rights Violations" (with John Transue, Ian McDonald, and Brendan Nyhan)