Early-Game PC is key

Given postwar presidents’ extensive lobbying investments, the rest of the chapter examines their impact on key roll-call votes. With simultaneous testing of the early game factors that affect which bills experience key votes alongside the endgame factors that determine the winner, the results affirm that presidents’ involvement does dramatically increase their chances of prevailing in key votes. However, the essence of this influence looks different than is often assumed. Rather than turning on their influence in the legislative endgame, presidents’ success in key votes is rooted primarily in the earlygame. Again, this does not mean that the legislative endgame is unimportant or that presidents’ vote-centered lobbying is irrelevant but rather underscores the fact that its impact typically works indirectly by affecting the bargaining that transpires before bills even reach the floor. This same pattern holds true in both chambers