Majority Leadership in the U.S. Senate: Balancing Constraints By ...

Chapter 6 emphasizes the dual roles of senator and leader through broad analysis of earmarks designated to a Senate majority leader's state before, during, and after his leadership as well as through targeted case studies of senators Baker and Mitchell. Drawn from archival evidence, these cases demonstrate that leadership induces a transformation in the representative relationship between senator and state. With leadership, the Senate majority leader becomes a patron to his first electoral constituency. Being leader allows him access to resources by which he can provide distributive benefits that states have come to expect.

Chapter 7, by way of summary, provides some observations and conclusions pertaining to a Senate majority leadership constrained by multiple constituencies; it also addresses the ambiguities of an office that informally emerged and developed in response to competing demands and expectations.