Sunday, 9th May 2010

Money & Incumbency Dominate '07-'08 Elections

Money & Incumbency Dominate '07-'08 Elections
Source: National Institute for Money in State Politics

While conventional wisdom holds that an anti-incumbent mood is sweeping the country, statistics indicate that mood faces long odds of overcoming the overwhelming power of incumbency and the unyielding fundraising advantage that comes with incumbency. The success of incumbents has been gradually increasing since the 2001–2002 elections, when 89 percent of incumbents won.

Two new reports from the National Institute on Money in State Politics examine the role that money and incumbency played in the 2007–2008 elections.

The first report, The Role of Money & Incumbency in 2007–2008 State Elections, found that incumbents who held the fundraising advantage were re-elected 96 percent of the time. In fact, in twelve states, not a single top money-raising incumbent was defeated. Candidates with just the incumbency advantage were re-elected 94 percent of the time.

The second report, Competitiveness in 2007–2008 State Legislative Races: No Contest?, found that only 22 percent of state legislative candidates had a monetarily competitive race. Four major patterns emerged when studying monetary competitiveness. The first was regional differences: states in the Midwest and Mountain West had the highest number of competitive races. Second was public funding: five of the ten most-competitive states offered public funding for campaigns. The third trend was expense of elections: seven of the ten most-competitive states ranked among the most inexpensive legislative races in the country. The final involved business contributions: three of the states (Georgia, Florida, and New Mexico) whose candidates received the most direct contributions from business and special interests were among the least competitive, while three states (Minnesota, Montana, and Connecticut) with the smallest amount of business contributions were among the most competitive.

Category:

• Business and economics (DocuTicker)
• Government and politics (DocuTicker)
• Political process (DocuTicker)

Source:

• National Institute on Money in State Politics

Views: 320

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