ISSUE SALIENCE AND SUPPORT FOR CIVIL-RIGHTS LEGISLATION AMONG SOUTHERN DEMOCRATS

Does the size of their black constituency influence support for civil rights legislation among southern Democrats? Previous research on the subject has produced mixed results. I argue that part of the reason fo r this is that the voting indices typically used to measure constituen cy influence are invariably made up of both salient and more obscure r oll calls. To illustrate this point I examine scores from the 1990 Lea dership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), along with two roll calls o f similar impact yet markedly different levels of salience-the final v ote on the 1990 Civil Rights Act and a less publicized amendment. I sh ow that the size of the black constituency, as well as other district- level factors, was an important determinant of how southern Democratic House members voted on the 1990 Civil Rights Act, but not on the more obscure amendment or the overall LCCR scores.