Center for Effective Lawmaking

Center for Effective Lawmaking

University of Virginia
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Vanderbilt University

Meet our Faculty Affiliate: Connor Halloran Phillips
Center Affiliates / Faculty Affiliates / Legislative Research

Meet our Faculty Affiliate: Connor Halloran Phillips

Meet our Faculty Affiliate: Connor Halloran Phillips The Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) is excited to announce the promotion of Connor Halloran Phillips from CEL Research Affiliate to Faculty Affiliate.Dr. Phillips is an Assistant Teaching Professor at the Carnegie Mellon Institute for Strategy & Technology (CMIST). His research examines interest groups, parties, legislatures, and elections in the US with a focus on how federalism shapes phenomena such as partisan polarization and voter participation. In his current work, Dr. Phillips analyzes interest groups’ campaign contributions and ratings of state legislators to…

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August 20, 2025
Meet our Faculty Affiliate: Amy D. Meli
Center Affiliates / Faculty Affiliates / Legislative Research

Meet our Faculty Affiliate: Amy D. Meli

Meet our Faculty Affiliate: Amy D. Meli Monday, August 18, 2025The Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) is excited to announce the promotion of Amy D. Meli from CEL Research Affiliate to Faculty Affiliate.Dr. Meli is an assistant professor of political science at Hollins University in Roanoke, VA. Her research centers around interest groups and the way they influence the political system. Her research projects include an examination of the way involvement in interest groups influences interest group member political efficacy and affective polarization, the relationship between interest groups and the…

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August 18, 2025
The CEL on “The Weekly” and “Staffer” Podcasts
About the CEL / Board of Advisors / Conversations with Lawmakers

The CEL on “The Weekly” and “Staffer” Podcasts

The CEL on "The Weekly" and "Staffer" Podcasts Tuesday, August 12, 2025Tom Wickham and Shuwanza Goff, two members of the Center for Effective Lawmaking’s (CEL) Board of Advisors, were recently featured on leading political podcasts, C-SPAN’s The Weekly and Staffer, offering their expert insights into the inner workings of Congress and public service.Tom Wickham is the former Parliamentarian of the U.S. House of Representatives, and currently serves as Senior Vice President of state and local policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. On this episode of The Weekly podcast -…

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August 12, 2025
High Hurdles: Legislative Professionalism and the Effectiveness of Women State Legislators
Blog / Legislative Anaylsis / Legislative Research

High Hurdles: Legislative Professionalism and the Effectiveness of Women State Legislators

High Hurdles: Legislative Professionalism and the Effectiveness of Women State Legislators Thursday, August 7, 2025For numerical gains in American state legislatures to translate into substantive representation, women legislators need the ability to advocate for their constituents. In this forthcoming published paper in The Journal of Politics, Associate Professor Robert McGrath (George Mason University), Associate Professor Josh Ryan (Utah State University), and Assistant Professor Jatia Wrighten (Virginia Commonwealth University) examine the determinants of legislative effectiveness in state legislatures, theorizing that women in more professional legislatures will be subject to electoral selection…

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August 2, 2025
The Bipartisan Path Revisited: Collaboration and Legislative Effectiveness in the U.S. States
Blog / Center Affiliates / Legislative Anaylsis / Legislative Research

The Bipartisan Path Revisited: Collaboration and Legislative Effectiveness in the U.S. States

The Bipartisan Path Revisited: Collaboration and Legislative Effectiveness in the U.S. States Monday, July 21, 2025Does bipartisan collaboration enhance legislative success in U.S. state legislatures, as it does in Congress? This Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) working paper extends Harbridge-Yong, Volden, and Wiseman’s (2023) work, which finds that members of Congress are more effective lawmakers when they attract a greater share of cosponsors from the opposing party. Ph.D. candidate (and CEL Graduate Affiliate) Mackenzie R. Dobson adapts their framework to the state level using an original dataset of 401,720 bills…

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July 23, 2025
Prior Experience and State Legislative Effectiveness
Blog / Center Affiliates / Faculty Affiliates / Legislative Effectiveness Scores / Legislative Research

Prior Experience and State Legislative Effectiveness

Prior Experience and State Legislative Effectiveness Tuesday, June 24, 2025How do the prior experiences of lawmakers shape their performance in office? Representatives who have held prior elected office or professional backgrounds in relevant fields—specifically law, government, or politics—seem to have an advantage in winning elections. It is unclear whether those experiences help them become more effective legislators. In this published paper in Legislative Studies Quarterly based on a Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) working paper, Associate Professor Eric Hansen at Loyola University Chicago and Professor Sarah Treul (and CEL Faculty Affiliate) at the University of North…

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June 24, 2025

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