“…Following Jacobson and Kernell (1983) and many others (e.g., Carson, 2005;Carson, Engstrom, & Roberts, 2005;Hetherington, Larson, & Gobletti, 2003;Van Dunk, 1997), we code an individual as a quality challenger if he or she either held public office at the time of the election. As Goodliffe (2004) discusses in greater detail, although the dichotomous measure is somewhat imprecise, more nuanced measures of challenger quality (see Canon, 1990;Krasno, 1994;Krasno & Green, 1988) come at significant cost while, at best, resulting in only a marginal improvement in results. 7 We divide quality challengers into two groups: state legislators and all other candidates with elective office experience.…”