The annual meeting of the Legislative Studies Section was held in San Francisco, during the national convention of the American Political Science Association.  The LSS meeting was convened on Friday, August 31, at 5:30 p.m. by Chair John Hibbing of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. 

The session began with the presentation of awards.  Professor Jon Bond of Texas A & M University, on behalf of the committee which included Susan Hammond of American University and Gerald Gamm of the University of Rochester, presented the Carl Albert Dissertation Award to Michele Swers, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Mary Washington College, for her dissertation entitled, "From the Year of the Woman of the Republican Ascendancy:  Evaluating the Policy Impact of Women in Congress."   In his remarks, Professor Bond noted that Swers’ study is an innovative and comprehensive analysis of the policy impact of women legislators in the U.S. Congress and that it adds to our understanding of representation more generally.  

Professor David Brady of Stanford University, on behalf of the committee which included Laura Arnold of Southern Illinois University and Professor Gerhard Loewenberg of the University of Iowa, presented the Congressional Quarterly Prize for the best paper presented in the LSS section at the 2000 APSA meetings. The prize went to C. Lawrence Evans, for his paper entitled “Message Politics.”  In his remarks, Professor Brady pointed out that Evans makes a persuasive case that party message politics affects leaders’ strategies and tactics in framing legislation, in the House and the Senate, and shifts power toward party leaders and away from committee chairs.  

Professor William Mishler of the University of Arizona, on behalf of the committee comprised of Janet Box-Steffensmeier of Ohio State University and Michael Moore, of Texas A & M University, presented the Jewell-Loewenberg Award for best article printed in Legislative Studies Quarterly in 2000 to Benjamin Bishin of the University of California at Los Angeles.  Bishin’s article, titled “Constituency Influence in Congress:  Does Sub-Constituency Matter,” compared different sub-constituencies for members of Congress, and assessed their relative impact on
legislative choices.  President Hibbing thanked Frank Mackaman at the Dirksen Center for sponsoring the Jewell-Loewenberg prize.

Professor Dave Canon of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, on behalf of the committee which included Barbara Sinclair of the University of California at Los Angeles and Gary Cox of the University of California at San Diego, presented the Richard F. Fenno, Jr. prize for the best book on legislative politics. The Fenno prize went to Charles Cameron, for his book entitled, Veto Bargaining: Presidents and the Politics of Negative Power.  In his remarks, Professor Canon praised the book for its rigorous theory and empirical test of theory, especially the interplay between formal and quantitative methods. In his words, the book is a “thorough empirical analysis of presidential vetoes in the post World War II era,” which looks at the interplay between Congress and the presidency. 

The Secretary-Treasurer, Wendy Schiller, then presented the annual report stating that the section had increased its membership and that the section had a small surplus and no outstanding debts. 

Professor Bruce Oppenheimer of Vanderbilt University, announced the new slate of officers and executive council members, which was approved by the section.  Professor David Mayhew of Yale University will serve as the next president, and Professor Frances Lee of Case Western Reserve University will serve as the new Secretary-Treasurer.  The members of the executive council are William Mishler of the University of  Arizona,  Alison Alter of Stanford University, and Thomas Remington of Emory University. 

President Hibbing then turned to section business.  He thanked Bill Bianco for organizing this year’s panels, and announced that Gary Montcrief would be the program chair for the 2002 meetings. He announced that our membership is at 673 members, up slightly from previous years.  He reported on the meeting of the section presidents, and announced a new proposal by APSA to post papers prior to publication on a website for general comment and peer review.  The section then
discussed whether we should use our existing website to post and disseminate papers and solicit comment.  The editor of the newsletter, Ron Peters, agreed this would be possible as long as authors submitted the papers in the correct web format.  The section agreed to invite papers for web posting and to see how much the LSS website is used for this purpose before taking more permanent steps.

 Two additional announcements were made.  Karl Kurtz, with the National Conference of State Legislatures, invited section members to send in short, non-technical articles which focus on state legislatures to the publication, Spectrum.  President Hibbing announced that next year would be the 25th anniversary of the Legislative Studies Section, and that we would try to commemorate the occasion with a small reception during or after the business meeting, and compile a list of all past officers and prize winners.  The meeting adjourned at 6:29 p.m. 

Respectfully submitted,
Wendy J. Schiller
Secretary-Treasurer