Money and the Party Vote in State House Elections

Gierzynski, Anthony; Breaux, David A.

doi:10.2307/439853

Cited by 33 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Existing literature on city council elections largely supports this argument. We know that city council candidates are more likely to win with higher campaign expenditures (Fuchs, Adler, and Mitchell 2000;Krebs 1998;Krebs and Pelissero 2001;Lewis, Gierzynski, and Kleppner 1995;Lieske 1989), endorsements from local media, political organizations, and parties (Davidson and Fraga 1988;Gierzynski and Breaux 1993;Krebs 1998;Stein and Fleischmann 1987), and certain educational and occupational credentials such as having graduated from an Ivy League school (Lieske 1989) or possessing a law degree (Hamilton 1978). If incumbents dominate challengers on these dimensions prior to having been elected, the incumbency effect will appear large even if officials receive no benefit from serving in office.…”

Section: Literature On Incumbency Advantagementioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence of a Local Incumbency Advantage

Trounstine

2011

Legislative Studies Qtrly

120

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Incumbents are highly likely to win reelection at all levels of government, but scholars continue to debate the extent to which serving in office has a causal effect on winning. For city council elections it is unclear whether or not we should predict a causal effect at all. City councilors may not regularly seek reelection, and any apparent advantage could be entirely attributable to preexisting qualities rather than incumbency. This article uses a regression discontinuity design to provide evidence that city council incumbents are more likely to run and win their next elections because they served a term in office.

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Section: Literature On Incumbency Advantagementioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence of a Local Incumbency Advantage

Trounstine

2011

Legislative Studies Qtrly

120

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…The party also can attempt to limit the number of candidates entering by increasing the costs of running, C , as Donovan () notes that party organizations in Washington have a dominant influence in legislative races because of the state's low limits on individual campaign contributions to candidates compared to quite generous limits on direct spending by party organizations in legislative races. This ability of the party to control which candidates receive funding is a particularly powerful tool because Giles and Pritchard (), Breaux and Gierzynski (), Gierzynski and Breaux (), and Gierzynski and Breaux () show that higher campaign spending increases a candidate's share of the vote in state legislative races…”

Section: Washington State Primary Systems and Party Level Incentives mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Note that Gierzynski and Breaux () and Gierzynski and Breaux () analyze data from Washington State, and find positive impacts of expenditures on votes within the state, making the availability of party funds an important determinant of a candidate's chances of success.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of the Top Two Primary on the Number of Primary Candidates

Beck

Henrickson

2012

Social Science Quarterly

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Objectives. Washington State held its first "top two primary" in 2008. Under this system, the two candidates receiving the most votes move on to the general election, regardless of party affiliation. This study empirically examines the potential incentive under this top two primary system for each political party to discourage "excess" party candidates from entering primary contests. Methods. We examine this possibility by looking at the Washington State Legislative Primaries in 2004, 2006, 2008, and 2010. With these data, we estimate the factors impacting the number of primary candidates in a race for each political party, including the change in the primary format in 2008. Results. Our results indicate that the switch to the top two primary reduced the likelihood of having multiple Democratic candidates in a race, reduced the number of "excess" Democratic candidates, but did not have a significant impact on Republican candidates. Conclusion. With many states revising their primary systems, an understanding of the incentives present under alternative systems is critical. As such, the results presented in this study provide evidence that the top two primary gives the political parties an incentive to discourage excess primary candidates.

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“…In addition, indicators of district partisanship are also quite influential, both past percentage of the two-party vote and the party advantage index have a positive influence. One finding that was not anticipated was the differential effect of campaign spending- (Gierzynski and Breaux 1993).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Candidate Gender and Voter Support in State Legislative Elections

Hogan

2010

Journal of Women, Politics & Policy

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To what extent does candidate gender influence voter support in state legislative elections? This question is addressed in a candidate-level analysis of campaigns involving men and women in 20 states in the 1990s. The findings demonstrate some statistically significant differences by gender-women actually receive a higher percentage of the vote, although these effects are insufficiently large to influence their likelihood of winning. Additional analyses consider characteristics of districts and states that increase or dampen support for women. For example, women receive a greater vote percentage in districts where education levels are higher and where there is a larger proportion of African Americans. Overall, the major conclusion to emerge is that women have a slight edge over men in gaining voter support, but factors such as candidacy status, partisanship of the district, and campaign spending have a much stronger influence on election outcomes.

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Money and the Party Vote in State House Elections

Cited by 33 publications

References 22 publications

Evidence of a Local Incumbency Advantage

Evidence of a Local Incumbency Advantage

The Effect of the Top Two Primary on the Number of Primary Candidates

Candidate Gender and Voter Support in State Legislative Elections

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