This entry follows a general model employed for the study of the U.S. Senate to evaluate the degree of congruence between the ideological pattern of a representative’s voting behavior in the Texas House of Representatives and the partisan-ideological orientation of their legislative district. It identifies representatives whose floor voting behavior is substantially more liberal or conservative than we would expect based on the partisan-ideological preferences of their constituents. It also highlights other representatives whose ideological profile corresponds almost exactly to what we would expect given the ideological partisanship of their district.
The graph (right; view larger PDF here) plots the 150 members of the Texas House during the 2009 legislative session on two dimensions. The first dimension (Y-axis) is the representative’s Liberal-Conservative Score based on their voting record in the House, ranging in theoretical value from -1.0 (extreme liberal) to 1.0 (extreme conservative). For additional information on the Liberal-Conservative Score, see “How liberal or conservative is your Texas state representative?”
The second dimension (X-axis) accounts for the ideological partisanship of the district and is calculated using the average Republican share of the two-party vote in the election for railroad commissioner in 2004, 2006 and 2008. Given the limited information voters possess regarding the railroad commissioner candidates, this vote tends to be based principally on voters’ partisan-ideological preferences. For each district, the percentage of the two-party vote won by the Republican railroad commissioner candidate in the district is subtracted from the percentage of the two-party vote won by this same candidate state-wide. These values are then summed and divided by three to create the District Partisan Voting Index (PVI). The higher the value for the District PVI, the more Republican/Conservative the district is; while the lower the value, the more Democrat/Liberal the district is. Here, the actual values for the District PVI range from -41 to 22.
Finally, in the figure a dashed line (a Lowess curve) represents where we would expect a representative’s Liberal-Conservative Score to be, relative to their district’s partisan voting profile based on a statistical analysis of all 150 representatives. Representatives located above the dashed line have a voting record in the House that is more conservative than we would expect based on the partisan-ideological profile of their district, while representatives located below the line have a voting record that is more liberal than we would expect. Democratic representatives are identified by a blue dot and Republicans a red dot.
In the figure, the eight representatives whose respective Liberal-Conservative Score is most at odds with the partisan-ideological profile of their district are identified by name. The highest degree of ideological disconnect between a representative and their district is found in the case of Linda Harper-Brown (HR-105, Irving), who is substantially more conservative than her district’s level of ideological partisanship would suggest she would be. She is followed in this ranking of representative-district partisan-ideological discontinuity by David Leibowitz (HR-117, San Antonio), Scott Hochberg (HR-137, Houston), Wayne Christian (HR-9, Center), Abel Herrero (HR-34, Corpus Christi), Tim Kleinschmidt (HR-17, Austin), Carol Kent (HR-102, Dallas) and Jimmie Aycock (HR-54, Killeen). All four Republicans and all four Democrats are respectively more conservative and more liberal than their legislative district’s partisan-ideological profile would indicate. It is very important, however, to keep in mind that the replacement of these representatives by either a co-partisan or a rival-party member would not automatically lead to the presence of a representative whose Liberal-Conservative Score would be more in concert with the partisan-ideological profile of the district.
In contrast to the above-mentioned representatives, half a dozen House members possess a Liberal-Conservative Score located right along the dashed line, indicating a near-perfect match between their legislative floor voting behavior and their district’s partisan-ideological preferences. They are Democrats Armando Martinez (HR-39, Weslaco), Marisa Marquez (HR-77, El Paso) and Richard Peña Raymond (HR-42, Laredo), and Republicans Frank Corte Jr. (HR-122, San Antonio), Joe Straus (HR-121, San Antonio) and Rob Eissler (HR-15, The Woodlands).
A significant disconnect between a representative’s floor voting record and their district’s partisan-ideological orientation does not necessarily indicate a crisis of representation. However, the presence of this type of incongruity does suggest a potential gap between a representative’s behavior on the House floor and the preferences of a majority of his/her constituents that may be worthy of greater scrutiny by these constituents.
Mark P. Jones is a Baker Institute Rice scholar, the Joseph D. Jamail Chair in Latin American Studies, and chair of the Department of Political Science at Rice University.