Robin Kolodny and Diana Dwyre, "Party-Orchestrated Activities for Legislative Party Goals: Campaigns for Majorities in the US House of Representatives in the 1990s," Party Politics, 4 (July 1998), 275-295.

First Paragraph:
The organization of the American party system mirrors the American political system's separation of powers. Since the 1860s, American parties have had separate organizations to support the election of presidential candidates and the election of candidates to the lower chamber of the national legislature, the House of Representatives. Once passage of the 17th Amendment to the Constitution in 1913 required direct election to the upper chamber, separate organizations also formed for the election of Senators. Thus there are six national party organizations: the Republican National Committee (RNC), the Democratic National Committee (DNC), the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), the National Republican Senatorial Com-mittee (NRSC) and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC). Each party's committees have had little incentive to cooperate during election campaigns for several reasons. First, terms of office of the different branches do not coincide. The president is elected for a 4-year term, with a limit of two terms. Members of the House of Representatives are elected for 2-year terms, and members of the Senate for 6-year terms, with no term limits imposed for either. A second significant difference is the nature of victory: the presidency is an all-or-nothing proposition while elections to the legislature are geared toward attaining majority (or controlling) status in the chamber. These differences have often created an environment for conflict rather than cooperation between the various campaign organizations of each of the two major US parties.

Figures and Tables:
Table 1: Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Republican National Committee (RNC) disbursements to House candidates, 1980-94.

Last Paragraph:
The 1996 Democratic efforts were more modest than the Republicans', reflecting in our view the Democrats' relative lack of resources, their belief that 1994 may have been an exceptional circumstance, and their sense that they could return to power in 1996. Since the Democrats now remain in the minority, we may see significant new efforts by the DCCC. We believe that the electoral environment for House elections will remain competitive for some time, making the circumstances ripe for continued party-orchestrated campaigning and for a continued emphasis on the CCCs as the pivotal party organizational actors.