Battle over the Bench: Senators, Interest Groups, and Lower Court Confirmations

Acknowledgments

As with many projects, the list of those who have helped this book become a reality is numerous. The book is based on work begun at the University of California, Berkeley, and many professors and fellow graduate students provided excellent advice, feedback, and support; it is highly likely that any good ideas are theirs. Robert A. Kagan, my dissertation adviser, and Malcolm M. Feeley both supported this project from the beginning , and have been fantastic mentors and friends. Nelson W. Polsby, who is deeply missed, offered constant advice and guidance. I would not be the scholar I am today without the three of them. Many thanks are due to Lori A. Johnson, who first helped me conceive this study and shape it into a doable and successful project. The members of GWAP— Casey B. K. Dominguez, Justin Buchler, Matthew G. Jarvis, Keith W. Smith, and John E. McNulty—provided the feedback, critiques, stability , and encouragement that only fellow graduate students (and great friends) can. I conducted the interviews for this project with the aid of a 2002 Dirksen Congressional Center Congressional Research Grant. Some of the interviews with interest group leaders were conducted with the help of Nancy Scherer. A list of opposed nominations, similar to that appearing in appendix C, was previously published in Nancy Scherer, Brandon L. Bartels, and Amy Steigerwalt, “Sounding the Fire Alarm: The Role of Interest Groups in the Lower Federal Court Confirmation Process,” Journal of Politics 70 (2008): 1026–39. That article also quoted material from some of the same interviews featured in this book; these interviews were originally conducted for the dissertation project that led to this book. I am extremely grateful for the enormous amount of advice, feedback, and support I have received from many colleagues since leaving Berkeley. I specifically want to thank Brandon L. Bartels, Lawrence Baum, Sara C. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xii Acknowledgments Benesh, Sarah A. Binder, Eileen Braman, Paul M. Collins Jr., Pamela C. Corley, Jolly Emery, Alison Gash, Micheal W. Giles, Sheldon Goldman, Roger E. Hartley, Marcus E. Hendershot, Lisa M. Holmes, Robert M. Howard, Robert J. Hume, Tonja Jacobi, Forrest Maltzman, Amy McKay, Nancy Scherer, Jeffrey A. Segal, Elliot E. Slotnick, Susan Navarro Smelcer, Harold J. Spaeth, Richard L. Vining, Thomas G. Walker, and Stephen L. Wasby; to those whom I am positive I have inadvertently left off this list, thank you. I am thrilled to be part of a subfield in which support and collaboration are the norm rather than the exception. I especially thank Artemus Ward, Christine L. Nemachek, and Wendy L. Martinek, who offered hours of help and advice above and beyond the call of either professional collegiality or friendship. Thank you to my colleagues at Georgia State University for making my working days such a delight, and to my department for providing me with research assistants; I thank Clarissa Dias and Lindsey Herbel for their able assistance. I especially thank Jessica Burke, whose assistance on numerous tasks was invaluable. I am also indebted to my former colleagues at the University of New Orleans. My editor at the University of Virginia Press, Richard K. Holway, and the two series editors, Kevin T. McGuire and Gregg Ivers, provided help and support as this book wound its way through the publication process. Two anonymous reviewers provided comments and suggestions that made this book all the better. Finally, thank you to my friends and family who have encouraged me through the years, some all the way back to middle school. You are particularly lucky when your family and friends make even difficult events tolerable. The Steigerwalt and Smith families have all supported me in ways both big and small, and for that I am exceedingly grateful; I can only hope that I will be as great a parent as Ronna and Arnold Steigerwalt have been to me. Last but not least, to my husband Greg, who has stood beside me even as I’ve dragged him around the country, canceled plans to work, shoved chapters at him and asked him to please edit them in the next ten minutes, and needed him to wait on me hand and foot while I recovered from ankle surgery. I could not have done this without you, love. Battle over the Bench This page intentionally left blank ...