Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T06:02:05.040Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Effects of Campaign Spending in Congressional Elections*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Gary C. Jacobson
Gary C. Jacobson*
Affiliation:
Trinity College
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Incomplete understanding of the connection between campaign spending and election outcomes has hindered evaluation of enacted and proposed congressional campaign finance reforms. Reanalysis of the 1972 and 1974 House and Senate campaign spending data using both OLS and 2SLS regression models shows that spending by challengers has a much greater impact on the outcome than does spending by incumbents. A similar analysis of the effects of spending on voters' recall of candidates in the 1972 and 1974 SRC surveys supports the explanation that campaign expenditures buy nonincumbents the necessary voter recognition already enjoyed by incumbents prior to the campaign. The 1974 survey questions on Senate candidates indicate that, although the inability to remember candidates' names does not preclude having opinions about them, voters recalling candidates are much more likely to offer evaluative comments, and these more frequently refer to candidates personally. Aware voters offer more negative as well as positive evaluations (though positive outnumber negative); familiarity is not automatically advantageous. And voters' evaluations of candidates strongly influence how they vote. The implications of these findings for congressional campaign finance policy are readily apparent.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 72 , Issue 2 , June 1978 , pp. 469 - 491
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1978

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

I am grateful to Christopher Achen, Forrest Nelson, John Ferejohn, Roger Noll, Stephen Rosenstone, William P. Welch, and Diane Zannoni for their helpful suggestions and critical comments on earlier versions of this article. They are of course free of any responsibility for its remaining shortcomings. The data used here were made available in part by the Inter-University Consortium for Political Research; I am solely responsible for all analyses and interpretations. Some of the material presented here was delivered under the title “Campaign Spending and Voter Awareness of Congressional Candidates,” at the Annual Meeting of the Public Choice Society, New Orleans, Louisiana, March 11–13, 1977 and in “The Electoral Consequences of Public Subsidies for Congressional Campaigns,” at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, D.C., September 1–4, 1977.

References

Abramowitz, Alan I. (1975). “Name Familiarity, Reputation, and the Incumbency Effect in Congressional Elections.” Western Political Quarterly 28:558–684.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adamany, David W. and Agree, George (1975). Political Money: A Strategy for Campaign Financing in America. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Arsenau, Robert B. and Wolfinger, Raymond (1973). “Voting Behavior in Congressional Elections.” Paper presented to the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, New Orleans, Louisiana, 09 4–8, 1973.Google Scholar
Ben-Zion, Uri and Eytan, Zeev (1975). “On Money, Votes, and Policy in a Democratic Society.” Public Choice 17:1–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bental, Benjamin, Ben-Zion, Uri, and Moshel, Yair (1976). “Money in Politics–An Empirical Study.” Preliminary draft for presentation at the 1976 Econometric Meeting.Google Scholar
Bental, Benjamin, Ben-Zion, Uri, and Moshel, Yair (1977). “Money in Politics–An Empirical Study.” Revised working draft presented to the Public Choice Society, New Orleans, Louisiana, 03 9–11, 1977.Google Scholar
Common Cause (1972). 1972 Congressional Campaign Finances. Washington, D.C.: Common Cause.Google Scholar
Congressional Quarterly (1972). Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report (October 7):2485–2588.Google Scholar
Congressional Quarterly (1974a). Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report (October 12): 2715–2815.Google Scholar
Congressional Quarterly (1974b). Congressional Districts in the 1970's. 2nd ed. Washington: Congressional Quarterly.Google Scholar
Congressional Quarterly (1975). Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report (April 19):789–94.Google Scholar
Cover, Albert D. (1976). “One Good Term Deserves Another: The Advantage of Incumbency in Congressional Elections.” Paper presented to the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago, September 2–5, 1976.Google Scholar
Dawson, Paul A. and Zinser, James E. (1976). “Political Finance and Participation in Congressional Elections.” American Academy of Political and Social Science Annals 425:59–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferejohn, John A. (1977). “On the Decline of Competition in Congressional Elections.” American Political Science Review 71:166–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glantz, Stanton A., Abramowitz, Alan I., and Burkart, Michael P. (1976). “Election Outcomes: Whose Money Matters?” Journal of Politics 38:1033–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hinckley, Barbara, Hofstetter, Richard, and Kessel, John H. (1974). “Information and the Vote: A Comparative Election Study.” American Politics Quarterly 2:131–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacobson, Gary C. (1976). “Practical Consequences of Campaign Finance Reform: An Incumbent Protection Act?” Public Policy 24:1–32.Google Scholar
Jacobson, Gary C. (1977). “The Electoral Consequences of Public Subsidies for Congressional Campaigns.” Paper presented to the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, D.C., September 1–4, 1977.Google Scholar
Johnston, J. (1972). Econometric Methods. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Kmenta, Jan (1971). Elements of Econometrics. New York: MacMillan.Google Scholar
Kostroski, Warren Lee (1973). “Party and Incumbency in Postwar Senate Elections: Trends, Patterns, and Models.” American Political Science Review 67:1213–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lott, William F. and Warner, P. D. III (1974). “The Relative Importance of Campaign Expenditures: An Application of Production Theory.” Quality and Quantity 8:99–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayhew, David R. (1974a). “Congressional Elections: The Case of the Vanishing Marginals.” Polity 6:295–317.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayhew, David R. (1974b). Congress: The Electoral Connection. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Miller, Warren E., Miller, Arthur H., and Kline, F. Gerald, Principal Investigators (1975). The CPS 1974 American National Election Study. ICPR Edition. Ann Arbor, Michigan: The Center for Political Studies, the University of Michigan.Google Scholar
Palda, Kristian S. (1973). “Does Advertising Influence Votes? An Analysis of the 1966 and 1970 Quebec Elections.” Canadian Journal of Political Science 6:638–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Palda, Kristian S. (1975). “The Effect of Expenditure on Political Success.” Journal of Law and Economics 18:745–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perdue, Lewis (1977). “The Million-Dollar Advantage of Incumbency.” Washington Monthly 9:50–54.Google Scholar
Rao, Potluri and Miller, Roger L. (1971). Applied Econometrics. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth.Google Scholar
Ripley, Randall B. (1975). Congress: Process and Policy. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Scammon, Richard M. (1975). America Votes 11: A Handbook of Contemporary American Election Statistics. Washington: Congressional Quarterly.Google Scholar
Silberman, Jonathan (1976). “A Comment on the Economics of Campaign Funds.” Public Choice 25:69–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silberman, Jonathan and Yochum, Gilbert (1977). “Campaign Funds and the Election Process.” Paper presented to the Public Choice Society, New Orleans, Louisiana, March 11–13, 1977.Google Scholar
Stokes, Donald E. and Miller, Warren E. (1962). “Party Government and the Saliency of Congress.” Public Opinion Quarterly 26: 531–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Theil, Henri (1971). Principles of Econometrics. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
United States Congress (1971). Federal Elections Campaign Act of 1971: Appendix A. Senate, Committee on Commerce, Subcommittee on Communications.Google Scholar
United States Congress (1973). Federal Elections Campaign Act of 1973: Appendix A. Senate, Committee on Commerce, Subcommittee on Communications.Google Scholar
United States Congress (1974). Congressional Record. 93rd Congress, 2nd Session. Vol. 120, Pt. 14 (154):18542.Google Scholar
United States Congress (1977). Federal Election Reform Proposals of 1977. Senate, Committee on Rules and Administration.Google Scholar
Welch, William P. (1974). “The Economics of Campaign Funds.” Public Choice 20:83–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Welch, William P. (1976). “The Effectiveness of Expenditures in State Legislative Races.” American Politics Quarterly 4:333–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Welch, William P. (1977). “Money and Votes: A Simultaneous Equation Model.” Paper presented to the Public Choice Society, New Orleans, Louisiana, 03 11–13, 1977.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.