Download This PaperThe Impact of Incumbent Scandals on Senate Elections, 1974-2008
29 Pages Posted: 22 Feb 2011 Last revised: 17 Mar 2011
Date Written: March 16, 2011
Abstract
Conventional wisdom is that one of the few things that can counter the incumbency advantage in congressional elections is when an incumbent is embroiled in a scandal. However, there is little research that directly examines the impact of incumbent scandals on the electoral process. This paper intends to provide a basic foundation upon which future research can proceed. I categorize the types of scandals; their effect on campaign expenditures; the quality of challengers they attract; and their effect on the percentage of the vote received by incumbents.
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?
Recommended Papers
-
Estimating Incumbency Advantage Without Bias
By Andrew Gelman and Gary King
-
How Not to Lie with Statistics: Avoiding Common Mistakes in Quantitative Political Science
By Gary King
-
A Unified Method of Evaluating Electoral Systems and Redistricting Plans
By Andrew Gelman and Gary King
-
Systemic Consequences of Incumbency Advantage in the U.S. House
By Gary King and Andrew Gelman
-
Representation Through Legislative Redistricting: A Stochastic Model
By Gary King
-
Democratic Representation and Partisan Bias in Congressional Elections
By Gary King and Robert X. Browning
-
Enhancing Democracy Through Legislative Redistricting
By Andrew Gelman and Gary King
-
'Truth' is Stranger than Prediction, More Questionable than Causal Inference
By Gary King
-
Political Parties and Foreign Policy: A Structure Approach
By Gary King
-
Estimating the Electoral Consequences of Legislative Redistricting
By Andrew Gelman and Gary King