Presidential Legislative Priorities and Legislators' Voting Decisions: An Exploratory Analysis

This article assesses the effect that the president's revealed priority ranking of an issue had on a legislator's roll-call decision during the first year of the Carter and Reagan presidencies. Controlling for other factors believed to be important in legislators' voting decisions, presidential issue advertisement did have a statistically noticeable effect. That effect varied across the presidents and type of legislator. The most consistent positive effect was among legislators predisposed to support the president from the outset, but core opponents were not positively moved. The more often President Carter mentioned an issue the less likely legislators outside his core support group were to support his position. President Reagan's mention of issues had a positive effect on cross-pressured legislators of both parties. These results have implications for presidential leadership in the legislative arena.