Replication Data for: Timing Their Positions: Cosponsorship in the State Legislature

Legislators must decide when, if ever, to cosponsor legislation. Legislators strategically time their positions on salient issues of national importance, but we know little about the timing of position taking for routine bills or what this activity looks like in state legislatures. We argue legislators’ cosponsorship decision-making depends on the type of legislation and the partisan dynamics among the current cosponsors. Members treat everyday legislation as generalized position taking motivated by reelection, yet for key legislation, legislators are policy oriented. With a new dataset of over 73,000 bills introduced in both chambers of the Texas state legislature in the 75th to 86th regular sessions (1997–2020), we use pooled Cox proportional hazard models to evaluate the dynamics of when legislators legislate, comparing all bills introduced with a subset of key bills. The results show legislators time their cosponsorship activity in response to electoral vulnerability, partisanship, and the dynamics of the chamber in which they serve.

议员需决策何时（若有必要）进行立法联名提案。议员会基于战略考量，在事关国家重要性的热点议题上择机表态，但目前学界对常规法案的表态时机，或是州立法机构中此类活动的具体形态，仍知之甚少。我们认为，议员的联名提案决策取决于法案类型，以及当前联名提案者之间的党派互动格局。议员将日常法案视为以连任为动机的一般性表态行为，而针对关键法案，则会以政策导向为核心考量。我们基于1997至2020年间德州州议会参众两院第75届至第86届常规会期内提交的逾7.3万份法案构建全新数据集，采用合并Cox比例风险模型（pooled Cox proportional hazard models）评估议员开展立法活动的时机动态，并将全部已提交法案与关键法案子集进行对比分析。研究结果显示，议员会根据自身选举脆弱性、党派立场以及所在议院的动态格局，择机开展联名提案活动。