Author Description

American politics has devolved into a grim battle between two approximately equal-size armies in a take-no-prisoners culture war. In 2000, those armies fought to a near-draw--out of more than 100 million ballots cast, the presidency of the United States hinged on a breathtakingly slim 537-vote margin in Florida. Four years later, despite the occurrence of a recession, two wars, and a devastating terrorist attack on American soil, the two adversaries remain fairly evenly divided. In the wake of an acrimonious election where both political parties together spent roughly $4 billion on the federal elections, politicians, analysts, citizens, and scholars continue to turn to the book that George Will called the "Bible of American politics" to understand the American political landscape. The 2006 Almanac of American Politics remains the gold standard of accessible political information, relied upon by everyone involved, invested, or interested in American politics. As in previous editions, the 2006 Almanac includes profiles of every member of Congress and every governor; in-depth and completely up-to-date narrative profiles of all 50 states and 435 House districts, covering everything from economics to history to, of course, politics; and analyses of the 2004 presidential election, the 2004 congressional elections, and redistricting battles. Specific to this latest edition of the nation's leading political reference work is coverage of all special elections in the 108th Congress and the California gubernatorial recall; maps and district profiles of the newly redrawn Texas congressional districts; a state-by-state analysis of the 2004 presidential election; a national overview of the 2004 presidential election; and a statistical breakdown of the 2004 presidential vote by state and congressional district. Full of maps, census data, and information on topics ranging from campaign expenditures to voting records to interest group ratings, this latest edi