McTague, John
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/11603/27009
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Item Voting from the pew: the effect of senators’ religious identities on partisan polarization in the U.S. Senate(Wiley, 2013-07-18) McTague, John; Pearson-Merkowitz, Shanna; Towson University. Department of Political SciencePartisan polarization in the Senate is in part a product of the increased sorting of evangelical Christians into the Republican caucus. The relationship between senators’ religious identities, party affiliation, and ideology has changed since the 1970s. Whereas congressional party caucuses in the past were more diverse in their religious composition, evangelical Christian senators have sorted themselves into the party that most closely resembles the values of their religious identities, leading to greater overall polarization.Item Authoritarianism and American political behavior from 1952 to 2008(SAGE Publications, 2014-03) McTague, John; Cizmar, Anne M.; Layman, Geoffrey C.; Pearson-Merkowitz, Shanna; Spivey, Michael; Towson University. Department of Political ScienceUsing American National Election Studies (NES) data from 1952 to 2008—a longer timespan than any analysis to date—we evaluate the leading claims about growing polarization along authoritarian/nonauthoritarian lines and the reasons for that growth. We find authoritarianism’s impact has grown for partisanship and voting but has been consistent for policy attitudes—usually present for “social” and defense issues, but less so for social welfare and foreign policy. This suggests that authoritarianism’s importance is related to strategic politicians advancing issues that touch on the authoritarian/nonauthoritarian divide, and varies across election years.Item Thou shalt not flip flop: senators' religious affiliations and issue position consistency(Wiley, 2015-07-22) McTague, John; Pearson-Merkowitz, Shanna; Towson University. Department of Political ScienceIs there a relationship between legislators' religious affiliations and the consistency of their voting records? Building on the theory of "the personal roots of representation," we argue that a legislator's likelihood of switching positions depends on whether the issue is central to their personal values. We evaluate this claim using a data set including senators' religious affiliations and "culture war" votes from 1976 to 2004 and find that different religious groups vary in their voting consistency on issues such as abortion, public prayer, and gay and lesbian rights.Item Distance-decay in the political geography of friends-and-neighbors voting(Elsevier, 2008-02) Gimpel, James G.; Karnes, Kimberly A.; McTague, John; Pearson-Merkowitz, Shanna; Towson University. Department of Political ScienceWe articulate a theory of the relevance of distance to candidate support in election campaigns. Anchoring our effort in V.O. Key’s reflections on localism from a half century ago, we test whether distance from a candidate’s hometown base exacts a toll on support for that candidate in general elections. Employing a geographic information system (GIS), we measure the distance between a candidate’s home county, and every other county in the state. This method permits a direct test of the distance/localism hypothesis. Our results show that the impact of distance is non-linear, consistent with a classic distance-decay formulation of the effect. Notably, however, this effect operates only over a limited electoral terrain. Distance from a candidate’s hometown does not matter to the political support of the most geographically isolated populations, where candidates rarely emerge.Item An “authoritarian spring?” authoritarianism and the 2018 midterm elections(De Gruyter, 2018-12-19) McTague, John; Cizmar, Anne M.; Towson University. Department of Political ScienceThis paper examines the role of authoritarianism in the 2018 US congressional elections. In particular, we assess whether the issues that have historically been central to the authoritarian divide in the American electorate were salient in the campaigns of several important Senate races. We demonstrate that authoritarian attitudes played a consistent, significant role on presidential vote choice, party identification, and numerous policy areas in the 2016 presidential election using data from the American National Election Studies. Using case studies of six Senate races in the 2018 midterm elections, we find that authoritarianism was more muted than in 2016, and that the role of authoritarianism varied considerably depending upon the race. States with stronger Trump support in 2016 featured authoritarianism more heavily than states with less Trump support in 2016, but authoritarianism overall was not as prominent in 2018 as in 2016. Overall, Senate candidates relied on traditional campaign messages related to candidate qualifications, personal attacks, the economy, and other messages less central to authoritarianism.Item The impact of presidential campaigning for congress on presidential support in the U.S. House of Representatives(Wiley, 2011-02-07) McTague, John; Herrnson, Paul S.; Morris, Irwin L.; Towson University. Department of Political SciencePresidential influence is partly a function of the partisan, economic, and international context within which the president governs. Presidents are, however, more than bystanders relying on the political milieu for policy opportunities. Recent scholarship demonstrates that presidents consciously influence this milieu and build political capital by campaigning for congressional candidates. We contribute to this literature by assessing the effects of presidential campaigning on legislative support for two presidents who governed under extremely dissimilar circumstances: Bill Clinton in the 106th Congress and George W. Bush in the 108th Congress. We find evidence of campaign effects on congressional policymaking during both administrations.Item Partisan mountains and molehills: the geography of U.S. state intraparty factionalism(Cambridge University Press, 2008) McTague, John; Pearson-Merkowitz, Shanna; Towson University. Department of Political ScienceWe examine whether the geographic distribution of a political party's electoral support affects the divisiveness of statewide primaries. In spite of V.O. Key, Jr.'s (1956) original insight that geography might be a relevant predictor of contested statewide primaries, this hypothesis has received little attention from political scientists. We test Key's hypothesis using data on gubernatorial and U.S. Senate elections to identify the effects of electoral geography on the structure of competition in primary elections. We contend that dispersed bases of electoral support greatly increase the costs associated with maintaining party cohesion. Our findings support the theory that a geographically dispersed electorate heightens the potential for intraparty factionalism. These results are robust across several measures of the dependent variable.Item Did the “war on women” work? women, men, and the birth control mandate in the 2012 presidential election(SAGE Publications, 2015-01) McTague, John; Deckman, Melissa; Towson University. Department of Political ScienceUsing a nationally representative data set (N = 3,000), the Public Religion Research Institute’s American Values Survey, we conduct multivariate regression analysis to determine the empirical impact of attitudes regarding the birth control mandate and abortion on presidential vote choice. We also conduct factor analysis to determine whether voters conceptualized the birth control mandate and abortion similarly. We find that support for the Obama administration’s birth control mandate was significantly related to voting for Obama for both women and men voters, although the impact was stronger for women. However, the impact of the “War on Women” rhetoric on voters’ choices was limited to the issue of insurance coverage for birth control rather than extending to the issue of abortion. Unlike attitudes about abortion, we find that voters conceptualized the birth control mandate less as a “culture war” issue and more as a “role of government” issue. Given this conceptualization of the mandate by voters, our findings reaffirm previous research that suggests that the gender gap in voting is largely driven by attitudinal differences regarding the role of government in providing social welfare benefits and equal opportunity for women.Item Politically themed residential learning communities as incubators of interest in government and politics(American Political Science Association, 2017) McTague, John; Towson University. Department of Political ScienceItem Religion, parties, and voting behavior: A political explanation of religious influence(Oxford University Press, 2009) McTague, John; Layman, Geoffrey C.; Towson University. Department of Political ScienceThis article tries to provide a political explanation of religious influence. The article begins by determining how the relationship of religion to politics and voting behavior has changed during the past 4 decades. It looks at why that change has occurred, even if the new religious divisions between the electoral coalitions of the parties are most likely to take shape. This is done by focusing on the dynamic relationship between the three parts of the American party system. The last portion of the article centers on challenges, caveats, and alternatives to the authors' framework.