Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Between 1845 and 1865 the California Indian population plunged from approximately 150,000 to 25,000 or 30,000. By 1880, census takers recorded only 16,277 California Indians. This paper contests the contentional view that the "lawlessness" of the frontier allowed the genocide of California's Indians. Instead, this paper argues that legislation opened the door to catastrophe. Military, state and federal policymakers stripped California Indians of legal power and rights, excluded them from colonial society, took their land, denied them protection, and eroded legal and cultural barriers to their abuse and murder. This paper describes the five key phases of legislation, between 1846 and 1860, that led to the California Indian catastrophe.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: After an unusually swift reform movement in the 1990s, 15 states are now adjusting to the most significant institutional change in state government in a generation—legislative term limits. Beyond presenting political scientists with the basic task of identifying and cataloging its wide variety of substantive impacts, this reform provides scholars with an unprecedented opportunity to test and extend legislative theory. Most legislative theory is supported by behavioral assumptions that term limits appear to threaten. In particular, the assumption that legislators are driven by a re-election motivation is the foundation of both most positive and more informal explanations of the legislative process. This assumption must be modified—if not rejected completely—in the presence of term limits, giving a unique opportunity to test these theories. I describe some of the benefits of using term limits to test and extend legislative theory by reviewing the existing literature on the subject. In the process, I also highlight term limits’ exceptional methodological advantages for theory testing (exogeneity, strong research designs, and significant variation on the causal variable) and explicate the potential causal mechanisms at work with the reform.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Although the pervasiveness of violence against women is not a new phenomenon, what is considered an appropriate response to gender-motivated violence remains divisive in both academic literature and in federal and state policies. A relatively new approach is the inclusion of gender within state bias crime legislation. However, despite the controversy surrounding the inclusion of gender in bias crime legislation, little empirical research has been conducted on the topic. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore the gender quandary within bias crime legislation by examining one state’s efforts to include gender as a category within its bias crime legislation. Through content analyses of legislative records and media reports, this research examines the process in which the gender category was included within New Jersey’s bias crime legislation, and subsequently, how the category has been framed within the media since the passage of the law. Findings indicate that both the legal climate and the political climate were conducive to the inclusion of gender within New Jersey’s bias crime legislation; however, since the passage of the law, the gender category has not received the same media attention as other forms of bias-motivated crimes. As such, this research informs hate crime policy debates on the state and federal levels, yet more specifically, informs policy-makers and other claims-makers interested in combating gender-motivated violence.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Committees remain one of the most significant forms of internal legislative organization. Despite this, no theory exists to explain variation in committee structures across legislatures. I argue that strong committee systems emerge as an institutional response to the needs and preferences of parties in multiparty government - particularly the need to ensure coalition policy is being implemented by individual ministers, as well as the needs and preferences of individual legislators - as determined by electoral institutions. My propositions are tested with new data from 31 parliamentary democracies and compared with traditional accounts of legislative design. I find a significant empirical relationship between strong legislative committee and multiparty government. Surprisingly, legislator’s individual preferences are a less significant determinant of committee structure. My core finding, that strong committees exist as a method of intra-coalition monitoring rather than a source of oppositional influence, suggest the need for significant adjustments to existing theories of legislative organization and coalition government.

Publication Type: Proceeding
Abstract: This paper examines the electoral, ideological and institutional implications for Latino Minority-Majority Districts. Using data from state legislative districts in 20 states, the study finds that 1) Latinos are more likely to be elected from MMDs than non-MMDs, 2) that Latino Democratic legislators are more liberal than other legislators, including other Democrats, 3) MMDs increase the tenure of Latino legislators, 4) Latino MMDs create compact districts that are proximate to the median in each legislative chamber, and 5) tenure and proximity to the median chamber are positively associated with Latinos ability to hold legislative leadership positions.