Roll Calls, Reputations, and Representation in the U. S. Senate

Using the NES 1988 Senate Election Study data, this paper demonstrates a strong correlation between U.S. senators' roll-call ideology scores and their ideological reputations among their constituents. The paper also examines the relationship between the ideological reputations of senators and the ideological preferences of state electorates, as well as the relationship between ideological reputations of senate candidates generally and state ideology. The paper argues that ideological reputations play a major role in the electoral politics of the Senate.