The Incumbency Advantage What is an incumbent? Stephanow, 2006.

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Presentation transcript:

The Incumbency Advantage What is an incumbent? Stephanow, 2006

94% of House incumbents won re-election in 2006! (It was 98% in 2004.)

79% of Senate incumbents won re-election in 2006!

An incumbent doesn’t lose, they get fired!

Why do so many get easily re-elected? incumbent Advantages

Challenge the incumbent? Good luck! Relatively few seats are seriously contested. Some are not contested at all!

Money $$$! People are more likely to donate to people they “know”. – Especially from PACs.

Type of CandidateTotal RaisedNumber of Cands Avg Raised Incumbent $325,769,228 37$8,804,574 Challenger $120,160,926104$1,155,394 Open Seat $63,626,78228 $2,855,486 Grand Total $509,556,936169$3,015,130 SENATE,

Type of CandidateTotal RaisedNumber of Cands Avg Raised Incumbent Challenger 650 Open Seat 289 Grand Total HOUSE, 2008 $589,947,049 $218,575,834 $169,325,461 $977,848, $1,356,200 1,373 $336,271 $585,901 $711,680

Franking Privilege Free postage – Can do mass mailing up to 3 months before the election, letting their constituents know all the “wonderful” things they’ve done and how they’ve “brought home the bacon.”

Staffers Incumbents already have staff in place. – Illegal to work on re-election campaign during regular office hours, but many volunteer their free time. – Because no re-election for boss means no job!

Patronage Incumbents are able to appoint people to lower level offices/give people jobs. Friends of friends, etc.= votes.

Name Recognition People tend to vote for people they have heard of. – The Distinguished Gentleman Eddie Murphy’s character, Thomas Jefferson Johnson, got into Congress by using the name “Jeff” Johnson because that was the name of the Congressman before (who had died and left the seat open.) He never showed his face, just ran on the name. His slogan was, “Jeff Johnson—The Name You Know.”

Media Access Can get free media time by appearing on talk shows, radio talk shows and news coverage.

Casework Again, delivering the goods. Staff help constituents with all kinds of problems and concerns.

Gerrymandering How district lines are drawn in a state can draw an advantage for one particular party. – Tom DeLay’s encouragement for TX state legislature to redrawn the Texas district lines had a big impact on Texas in – We’ll learn more about this in a few days!

So, with all those incumbent advantages, should Congressmen be term limited? What do you think?

Many states tried…

…but the Supreme Court ruled… May 22, 1995 TERM LIMITS ARE UNCONSTUTIONAL. 5-4, States can’t place limits on the length of time members of Congress can serve. Strikes down an Arkansas term-limit law & similar measures that were passed by 21 other states. It would have to be done by a constitutional amendment. An amendment failed in the House earlier in 1995, but Sen. Fred Thompson pledged to bring a Senate version to the floor “at the earliest date possible.”