{"id":5414,"date":"2009-09-16T07:15:06","date_gmt":"2009-09-16T12:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=5414"},"modified":"2009-09-16T07:15:06","modified_gmt":"2009-09-16T12:15:06","slug":"when-yardstick-makers-drop-acid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=5414","title":{"rendered":"When Yardstick Makers Drop Acid"},"content":{"rendered":"

It reads almost like a joke; female politicians are better<\/a>…because they dish the pork and play the government game better than guys?<\/p>\n

\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the preliminary conclusion of a study conducted by researchers at Stanford University and the University of Chicago, who say that on average, women in Congress introduce more bills<\/font><\/strong><\/a>, attract more co-sponsors and bring home more money<\/font><\/strong><\/a> for their districts than their male counterparts do.<\/p>\n

The study, which examined the performance of House members between 1984 and 2004, found that women delivered roughly 9 percent more discretionary spending for their districts than men.<\/p>\n

For instance, during Rep. Judy Biggert\u2019s first two-year term, Illinois\u2019s 13th District received $382 million in federal funds, $70 million more than it received during the final term of her predecessor, Rep. Harris Fawell.<\/p>\n

Rep. Zoe Lofgren delivered around $859 million to her district, compared with $541 million brought in by her predecessor, Rep. Don Edwards, during his final term, the researchers said.<\/p>\n

And during then-Rep. Connie Morella\u2019s first term, Maryland\u2019s 8th District received $780 million, $183 million more than predecessor Rep. Michael Barnes brought in during his final term, they said.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So that’s <\/em>how we measure excellence in government – by how much pork a politician brings home?<\/p>\n

\n

While there are obviously variables beyond gender<\/font><\/strong><\/a> \u2014 seniority, party affiliation, majority\/minority status<\/font><\/strong><\/a> and the differing priorities of a freshman and a veteran lawmaker \u2014 the researchers say they\u2019ve accounted for those in making their male-to-female comparisons.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Oh, I don’t think they factored “party affiliation” out one bit…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It reads almost like a joke; female politicians are better…because they dish the pork and play the government game better than guys? \u00a0 That\u2019s the preliminary conclusion of a study conducted by researchers at Stanford University and the University of Chicago, who say that on average, women in Congress introduce more bills, attract more co-sponsors […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-men-and-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5414\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}