Working in the 'gray' area of a

Abstract

The district staff members of incumbents in the United States House of Representatives perform vital representational and electoral functions. Nearly half of all personal staff in the United States Congress work 'back home' in district offices far removed from the normal designs of "beltway" politics. This dissertation seeks to address this heretofore under-studied set of political actors. It will examine the allocation and variation of district staff by incumbent members of the United States House of Representatives. It will focus on who those staff are, what they do and what impact they have on our political system. This dissertation argues that congressional district staff members have a variety of effects on the American political system. Their service on behalf of incumbents clearly worked to enhance the representative function. Yet some staff had more exclusive interactions with elite constituents. These relationships served to bias representation to select groups and to detract from the system of free, fair and competitive system of elections established by the founders. Congressional district staffs are deserving of further attention from academics, journalists, political reformers, and the citizens who finance their activities.