Many individuals have influenced my ideas on the transformation of the American party system, the rise of negative partisanship, and the nationalization of elections in the United States over the past several decades. I owe a considerable debt of gratitude to my collaborator, coauthor, and methods tutor on several recent projects, Steven Webster. I have also been greatly influenced by the writings of other scholars on partisan polarization and its consequences, including Larry Sabato, Kyle Saunders, Ron Rapoport, Walter Stone, Gary Jacobson, James Campbell, Norman Ornstein, Thomas Mann, and Bill Bishop. William Frucht, the political science editor at Yale University Press, has provided constant encouragement and much helpful feedback during the writing of this book. Finally, I want to thank my students at Emory University for the past thirty years. Their interest and curiosity about the political world have been a source of constant intellectual stimulation.
This book is dedicated to Ann Abramowitz, who provided not only encouragement and support for this project but invaluable instruction on how national political forces were playing out in our own state and community based on her deep involvement in the political process.