Leadership Choice and Party Performance: The Democratic Takeover of the 110th Congress—Editor's Introduction

Abstract

Having been out of power in the House since 1994 and in the Senate for 10 of those 12 years as well, congressional Democrats' takeover of Congress in the 2006 midterm elections was an important moment in American political history. Having won the House and, somewhat more unexpectedly, the Senate by a bare majority, the Democrats recaptured control of an entire branch of the federal government for the first time since Bill Clinton left the White House. Controlling the levers of power in the House and the Senate—the legislative schedule, committees and subcommittees, and, to the extent that party bonds hold, the majority of votes in committee and on the floor—Democrats were poised to influence, but of course not unilaterally control, policymaking in the 110th Congress and the conduct of the last two years of the Bush administration through key congressional resources including funding and administrative oversight. I would like to thank all of the authors in the symposium for their willingness to participate and their excellent contributions. A special note of thanks also goes to Sean Kelly for his encouragement and advice on this project from first conception to final completion. Thanks also to Stephen Yoder and Rebecca Fowler at PS for their patience and guidance throughout.