Barbara Sinclair is Marvin Hoffenberg Professor of American Politics at the University of California at Los Angeles. She served as chair of the Legislative Studies Section of the American Political Science Association from 1993 to 1995. She is the author of several books, including Legislators, Leaders, and Lawmaking: The U.S. House of Representatives in the Postreform Era, Transformation of the U.S. Senate , which won the Richard F. Fenno Prize and the D. B. Hardeman Prize, and Party Wars: Polarization and the Politics of National Policy Making.