In May 2004, I received a grant from the National Science Foundation (SES-0417759) to construct an extensive data archive and conduct research about partisan coalition building in Congress. This project uses archival records of the whip counts conducted by party leaders to address significant scholarly disputes about the role of partisan institutions in Congress. A whip count is a private poll conducted by party leaders in which the positions of individual legislators are categorized as “yes,” “leaning yes,” undecided,” “leaning no,” “no,” or nonresponsive.

Detailed records of the whip counts conducted by House Democrats for 1955-1986 and 1989 and House Republicans for 1975-80 and 1989-90 already have been compiled from the personal papers of former party leaders. As part of the project, fairly extensive records also have been gathered from the Senate. Included are records of almost 1,000 whip counts, covering hundreds of the most significant measures considered by Congress since World War II (e.g., federal aid to education in the 1950s and 1960s, the Vietnam conflict, the energy battles of the 1970s, Reaganomics and U.S. involvement in Nicaragua during the 1980s, the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990, and the "Fast Track" Trade Act of 2002). For the past several years, I have been working with a team of William and Mary undergraduates to transform the archival materials into usable quantitative data, integrate relevant contextual evidence, and prepare working papers related to the project.

Currently, I am using the archival data and related evidence to conduct the analysis for a book about partisan coalition building on Capitol Hill, tentatively entitled “The Whip Systems of Congress.” As soon as the book is completed, the whip count data will be made available to the entire research community via an elaborate project website.

View a list of the student participants in the Congressional Whip Count Project.

Students interested in organizing independent studies, honors projects, or other curricular activities associated with the whip count project should .