In the 1980s, most members of Congress lived in Washington, D.C., with their families, socialized across party lines, and ran campaigns costing only a few hundred thousand dollars, according to Democratic Rep. Jim Cooper.
Notes on verification
Directly attributed to Jim Cooper's essay 'Fixing Congress' in Boston Review, corroborated by ProPublica's summary and responses from political scientists in the same forum. [tier=silver indep_score=0.925 clusters=2 claim_tier=notable]
Sources
- Our Reading Guide on Congressional Dysfunction - ProPublica (seed:politics_and_current_events)
- https://bostonreview.net/forum/why-congress-broken/ (corroboration)
- https://www.congress.gov (corroboration)