Constituency Service in the District

Abstract

“You can't help anyone if you cannot relate.” –An African-American staffer in Congressman Earl Hilliard's office, explaining why she thinks it is important to have African-American staff in congressional district offices. Is there a link between descriptive representation at the staff level and substantive representation at the congressional district level? What proportion of district staff are African American, white, or from other racial/ethnic backgrounds? Are these staff in the district working to reach black constituents? This chapter picks up where Chapter 4 left off, continuing to examine constituency service – a substantive, tangible good – delivered to African Americans. In this chapter, I argue that descriptive representation (the election of African-American legislators) is a key predictor of the hiring of black staff in congressional districts. Further, black staff are more likely than white staff to self-identify as being able to “relate” to African-American constituents. Whereas members of Congress personally engage in constituency service, most of the day-to-day work dealing with casework and other services falls to the congressional staff, and most often to the congressional staff in the district. When a constituent requests assistance from their representative, typically the request goes through a staff member in one of the district offices. Legislative observers have long noted the importance of staff in assisting the representational activities of members of Congress, particularly constituency service activities.