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Rethinking the Normal Vote, the Personal Vote, and the Impact of Legislative Professionalism in U.S. State Legislative Elections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2021

Thomas M. Carsey ,
Jonathan Winburn  and
William D. Berry
Thomas M. Carsey*
Affiliation:
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
Jonathan Winburn
Affiliation:
The University of Mississippi, University, MS, USA
William D. Berry
Affiliation:
Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA
*
Thomas M. Carsey, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Hamilton Hall, Chapel Hill, NC 27515, USA. Email: carsey@unc.edu
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Abstract

Legislators might rely on their partisan base for electoral support—what scholars call their normal vote—or they may cultivate support among nonpartisans through casework or constituency service—what scholars call a personal vote. Previous research frequently argues that legislators face a tradeoff between pursuing the normal vote and a personal vote as traditionally defined, often focusing on resources used by incumbents to build their personal vote. In contrast, we argue that securing the support of partisans and nonpartisans alike should be evaluated based on how a legislator performs in office, and that the so-called normal and personal vote need not be viewed as in conflict. We evaluate our claims using data from state legislative elections following redistricting, focusing on legislative professionalism to measure the resources available to incumbents that they might use to cultivate a personal note.

Keywords

electionspolitical behaviorrepresentationlegislative electionslegislative politicslegislative professionalismredistricting
Type
Research Article
Information
State Politics & Policy Quarterly , Volume 17 , Issue 4 , December 2017 , pp. 465 - 488
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2017

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