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Candidates and Parties in Congressional Elections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Thomas E. Mann  and
Raymond E. Wolfinger
Thomas E. Mann
Affiliation:
American Enterprise Institute
Raymond E. Wolfinger
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley
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Abstract

The 1978 CPS national election study, which includes many new questions about congressional candidates, is analyzed to discern what voters know about congressional candidates and why House incumbents are so successful at getting reelected by wide margins. Scholars have underestimated the level of public awareness of congressional candidates, primarily because of faulty measures. Voters are often able to recognize and evaluate individual candidates without being able to recall their names from memory. Incumbents are both better known and better liked than challengers, largely because they have the resources enabling them to communicate with their constituents frequently and directly. Yet the seriousness of the challenger is equally important for understanding the advantages of incumbency and why incumbency is less valuable in the Senate than in the House. Finally, public assessments of the president provide a national dynamic to congressional voting, but the effect is modest compared to the salience of the local choices.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 74 , Issue 3 , September 1980 , pp. 617 - 632
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1980

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