Let’s Play Hardball

Abstract

The Machiavellian aim of “gaining and holding power” by winning a majority of legislative seats is a key aim, arguably the primary purpose, of legislative parties (Kolodny 1998). To be sure, legislative parties also play important roles in building legislative coalitions, passing policy, and organizing the chamber, but each of these legislative roles hinges on gaining or maintaining majority control. In this respect, contemporary parties fit well Anthony Downs’ definition of a political party as “a team of men [and women] seeking to control the governing apparatus by gaining office in a duly constituted election” (1957, 25). Still, what it takes to win enough offices to control the legislature has changed significantly in the last half century, particularly as Congress became more polarized in the post-Reagan era.

Hardball is clean, aggressive Machiavellian politics. It is the discipline of gaining and holding power, useful to any profession or undertaking, but practiced most openly and unashamedly in the world of public affairs.

Christopher Matthews, Hardball: How Politics Is Played

Congressional elections are the ultimate in hardball politics. Members of Congress and those who want to join their ranks must compete for a limited number of positions, and there can be only one winner at the end of each campaign.

Paul S. Herrnson, Playing Hardball: Campaigning for the U.S. Congress