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 will use 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 House Republicans for 1975-80 and 1989-90 already have been compiled from the personal papers of former party leaders. Included are records for over 700 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, and the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990). 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 conduct the additional archival research necessary to incorporate more recent materials for the House and evidence from the Senate.

For a detailed summary of the project, please consult my NSF proposal.

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

William and Mary students who are interested in serving as paid research assistants on the project should carefully read and complete the formal application materials - Application Materials.

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

As the project proceeds, the data sets that we create will be made available to scholars and students via an elaborate website, providing the entire research community with valuable evidence about the dynamics of coalition building on Capitol Hill. Scholars and students alike will be able to conduct guided searches of the data base and download personalized data sets organized by bill, policy area, date, and legislator. Identifiers will be included to facilitate the merging of files with information from other on-line sources. Additional data from congressional and presidential archives will be added as it becomes available. A long-term goal of this project is to develop and maintain one of the more valuable and highly-used research websites about the American legislative process.