The increase in straight-ticket party voting in recent years means that competitive congressional races can tip one way or the other depending on the showing of the candidates at the top of the ticket.

Biography
He was born in Milwaukee Wisconsin and attended the University of Florida where in 1966 he received a B. Between 1987 and 1999 he was Director of Governance Studies at Brookings. Ornstein and Michael Malbin (1999)
The Permanent Campaign and Its Future co-editor with Norman J.

Averell Harriman Chair and a senior fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution. He primarily studies and speaks on elections in the United States campaign finance reform Senate and filibuster reform Congress redistricting and political polarization.