FORMER STATE LEGISLATORS IN THE UNITED-STATES HOUSE-OF-REPRESENTATIVES - INSTITUTIONAL AND POLICY MASTERY

State legislators have been moving into the House of Representatives with increasing frequency over the last 30 years. They enter the House with mastery over both institutional politics and particular areas of public policy, and they use this mastery to rapidly attain committee positions from which they can promote policy ideas developed from their state experiences. The extent of this mastery and their specific policy interests are shaped by the degree to which their state legislature is professionalized, the committee positions they held in the state, and their activeness in state policy making. Through interviews and analysis of committee assignments, four types of former state legislators in the House are identified: policy masters, policy participants, voluntary switchers, and disappointed switchers.