Dracula Effect

On the July 28, 2011 edition of MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show (Melissa Harris-Perry, guest host), NBC political correspondent Luke Russert explained what Washington, DC called the “Dracula Effect.” When legislators are up all night discussing a bill, and when daylight starts to appear (Dracula sleeps during the day and comes out as a vampire at night), the tired legislators tend to vote for the side that is likely to win and to get them home.
 
There are a few print citations for “Dracula Effect,” generally meaning legislation that is created in secret (“darkness”) and can’t withstand “sunlight” (openness). It’s not known where Luke Russert’s version of “Dracula Effect” originated.
 
 
Wikipedia: Count Dracula
Count Dracula is a fictional character, the titular antagonist of Bram Stoker’s 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula and archetypal vampire. Some aspects of his character have been inspired by the 15th century Romanian general and Wallachian Prince Vlad III the Impaler. In the United States, the character entered the public domain in 1899 and consequently appears frequently in all manner of popular culture, from films to animated media to breakfast cereals.
 
The Rachel Maddow Show (MSNBC)
July 28. 2011
(About 8;30 marl—ed.)
NBC CORRESPONDENT LUKE RUSSERT: There is a thing we call on Capital Hill called the Dracula Effect. That once the sun starts to come up and people are locked into a room, they suddenly turn to the side that will get them out of the room.