Recently there has been a strong pushback from political scientists about the event-driven, narrative-based focus that dominates political reporting. These critics note that the coverage either minimizes or ignores important structural and contextual factors, such as economic conditions and ideological polarization, that drive contemporary American politics. But while these critics are certainly justified in pushing back against this narrative that peddles the myth that politicians could achieve their goals if they just gave enough speeches with the right emotional appeal, we should be careful not to dismiss the importance of politicians' communication efforts. This is why Patrick Sellers's Cycles of Spin is so timely and important.

The book offers a systematic and thorough account of the process of strategic communication inside the contemporary US Congress. Sellers identifies and analyzes the four stages that comprise this process of strategic communication. These four stages are reflected in the four main research questions that are tackled in the book: 1) Which issues do congressional leaders decide to promote? 2) Which messages are promoted by rank-and-file members? 3) Which issues are covered by the media? 4) When does the coverage of the media feed back to influence the issues that legislators promote? These questions define the cycle of spin and the trajectory of the book.

Sellers' analysis is impressive in both theoretical and methodological terms. Theoretically, the book takes a broad view of the process of strategic communication by focusing on party leaders, rank-and-file members, and the media. Further, the book gives each of these actors agency and brings into focus the strategic interaction between them. While scholars of congressional politics have certainly focused on the various aspects of the cycle of spin, Sellers is unique in his comprehensive look at the process.

Methodologically, the book is impressive in that it combines a wide array of data sources and, more importantly, offers an exemplary approach to using mixed methods. Sellers combines evidence from participant observation as a staff member for Minority Leader Tom Daschle in 1997 and structured interviews with press secretaries, with American National Election Studies surveys, content analysis of congressional statements (from press conferences, the Congressional Record transcripts, and press releases), and content analysis of national and local news coverage. The data collected are presented and analyzed using both simple descriptive techniques and more complicated regression techniques when the analysis demands it (e.g., the use of vector autoregression in Chapter 5).

Sellers also demonstrates care in choosing which legislative bills to analyze. Specifically, he analyzes strategic communication efforts surrounding four bills that occurred in two different congressional sessions. Three bills (the “partial-birth” abortion bill, the supplemental appropriations bill, and the budget bill) were debated in 1997, while the fourth bill (a second budget bill) is from 2003. The bills vary in terms of their complexity (i.e., the budget bills) and their favorability toward the parties (the abortion bill favored Republicans, the supplemental bill favored the Democrats, and the budget bills did not naturally favor either party).

Chapters 3, 4, and 5 tackle the four stages of the cycle of spin. In Chapter 3, Sellers focuses on process: how party leaders decide whether to launch a strategic campaign in support of or opposition to a bill, and then how to frame the message surrounding the party's position. He notes that all issues considered in Congress involve multiple considerations, which provide the party leadership with choices that are guided by strategic considerations. He argues that party leaders choose frames that further the electoral and policy goals of the party, which is conditional on the level of party unity on the issues. The author's theoretical framework reflects and draws on two related lines of inquiry: the literature on the presidential strategy of going public and the model of issue ownership in campaigns. Presidents are more likely to “go public” on issues with a higher likelihood of success, which in the case of congressional parties occurs when the party is unified but the opposition is divided. Therefore, the party leadership is likely to use its scarce resources to promote those frames and issues that the party “owns” or, in other words, those issues where the public has a more favorable view of the party's frame than the opposition party's frame.

While the leadership may desire to focus on those frames and issues owned by the party, sometimes the issues are imposed on the leadership. Under this scenario, the leadership must weigh the costs and benefits of launching a promotional campaign, which depends on the willingness of the rank and file of the party to adopt the message. Further, the leadership must weigh the possibility that the rank-and-file members who are opposed to the party leadership's position will emphasize the opposition party's frame, which would weaken the party leadership's promotional campaign and potentially the party's reputation. Thus, the party leadership must consider the collective-action dilemma that arises from the diversity of preferences and the reluctance of members to spend time in party-building activities.

In Chapter 4, Sellers investigates whether the rank-and-file members of Congress involve themselves and promote their party's message. He finds that rank-and-file members will take up the party leadership's message if it is consistent with their policy preferences. On the other hand, those members with policy preferences that are opposed to the party's message will often remain silent, refusing to adopt the opposing party's message and undermining their own party's reputation. Therefore, in most cases, it appears that the parties are effective in solving their own collective-action problems.

A key aspect of the party leadership's decision to launch a promotional campaign or not concerns their ability to convince the rank-and-file members that the media will cover the issue. In Chapter 5, Sellers confronts this aspect of the cycle of spin by assessing whether the media takes up the party's frame, as well as whether the media's coverage feeds back into the policy process. He uncovers many interesting findings: 1) National and local news coverage overall is not biased in either a liberal or conservative direction; 2) Democratic-leaning news outlets dedicate more coverage to congressional promotional campaigns; and 3) promotional efforts from Democratic Party leaders generate positive feedback in coverage, whereas this is not true for Republican promotional efforts. Sellers speculates that this last finding stems from the minority status of the congressional Democrats. Thus, just as the president goes public because of his weak institutional position, the minority party's most effective agenda-setting tool, given its weak institutional position, is the use of the media.

In the concluding Chapter 6, Sellers investigates the implications of the cycles of spin for democratic politics. Promotional campaigns are important because they determine whether voters will encounter competitive policy frames, which have been shown to generate more rational, reasoned responses in the public. The author has provided us with an understanding of when we should expect competitive frames to emerge.

By combining insights from the literature on collective action with the literature on agenda setting, Cycles of Spin provides a framework for systematic thinking about the process of strategic communications in legislative politics. The book is a useful guide to future research because of the framework generated, the methodologies employed, and the additional questions raised. Notably, I wish that Sellers had paid more attention to the role of divided government in assessing whether and how promotional campaigns function. However, the fact the his book generates as many questions as it answers speaks to its importance as a contribution to the study of US congressional politics.