Determinants of Differences in Feelings toward Senators Representing the Same State

Must ideologically disparate senators represent different constituencies or support coalitions? Or can incumbents' efforts to nurture feelings of warmth and trust leave people liking both a Cranston and a Wilson, a D'Amato and a Moynihan? This study of responses to the 1988 Senate Election Study treats differences in feelings toward same-state senators as the dependent variable, and ideological distance between the senators as the independent variable. Controls are introduced for other differences between senators and for differences among respondents. Analysis of variance and covariance shows that the ideological distance between senators representing a state has relatively little impact on the feelings that constituents have toward them. Differences in feelings are determined more by differences in senators' attentiveness to their constituents and by other differences between pairs of senators than by differences in ideology and party. Ideological distance is less of an impediment to maintaining feelings of warmth than might be imagined, as constituents tend to adjust their perceptions of distance to conform to their feelings of warmth.