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Campaign Professionalism in State Legislative Elections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2021

Owen G. Abbe  and
Paul S. Herrnson
Owen G. Abbe
Affiliation:
University of Maryland
Paul S. Herrnson
Affiliation:
University of Maryland
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Abstract

We know that state legislative election campaigns have become increasingly expensive in recent years, but have they also become more professionally run? We assess the degree to which campaign professionals have proliferated in state legislative election campaigns and explain this development in terms of the institutional changes in state legislatures and the “congressionalization” of state legislative elections. Nearly one-half of all state legislative candidates answering our survey had hired professionals for their campaigns, using them mostly for direct mail, media advertising, campaign management, and polling. Open-seat candidates waged more professional campaigns than incumbents or their challengers. We find that campaign professionalism in state legislative elections is primarily a function of campaign spending, but that challengers hire professionals at lower spending levels. We also find that employing professionals improves the electoral performance of challengers, but not that of incumbents or open-seat candidates.

Type
Research Article
Information
State Politics & Policy Quarterly , Volume 3 , Issue 3 , September 2003 , pp. 223 - 245
Copyright
Copyright © The American Political Science Association, 2003

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