This book embraces the six-year term, 1981-1986, of Senator Arlen Specter, a Republican of Pennsylvania. The story begins and ends with an examination of his election campaigns, but it focuses on the adjustment experiences of his first two years in the chamber. For much of that period, the author, Richard F. Fenno, lived in Washington and was able to follow Specter’s governing activity at close range, particularly the events connected with the career-criminal legislation that forms the centerpiece of the book. The discussions of his campaigns also were formed by personal observation.
The dominant perspective, therefore, comes from over the shoulder of Arlen Specter and in that sense is necessarily a limited one. The view is enlarged, however, as readers will soon discover, by the members of Specter’s staff. The account of the senator’s major legislative efforts relies heavily on the observations of staff members who were involved in the legislative process. The perspective of the book is, most accurately, the perspective of the Specter enterprise–Specter and his closest aides. In fact, the increased influence and size of senators’ staffs are among the most important features of the contemporary Senate.
Fenno’s scholarly attention to the adjustment experiences of Senate newcomers helps readers to understand the Senate and the careers of its members, and the transition from the activity of campaigning to the activity of governing provides a good vantage point from which to study both. This books shows the individual and communal forces that coexist in the Senate, the electing-governing rhythm by which the senators live, and the interplay of these forces on a politician’s career.
