> especially a bipartisan block Yup, that's a biggie. Let's do a little simple arithmetic: Suppose Senator/Representative A is really popular and won by 55-4

> especially a bipartisan block Yup, that's a biggie. Let's do a little simple arithmetic: Suppose Senator/Representative A is really popular and won by 55-45 at the last election. Now along comes "a bipartisan block" of 10% of the voters all uniformly well up on their hind legs and totally torqued over issue X. So, now at the next election politician A and their opponent politician B get to split the 90%. Assume that this 90% again splits 55-45 for politician A (here we are using the assumption that the block was bipartisan). So now we have 0.55 * 90 = 49.5 0.45 * 90 = 40.5 for politician A versus B. Then, if politician A neglects the block, politician B gets the 10% and the election is a win 50.5-49.5 for politician B. This is simple arithmetic for a simple scenario but illustrates the main point: A politician who fails to take seriously a 10% bipartisan block is well on the way to a new career.