The Impact of Public Finance Laws on Fundraising in State Legislative Elections

The purpose of the analysis presented in this paper is to examine the role that party organizations play in campaign finance systems of state legislative elections. Party organizations are found to be more likely to fund candidates in competitive elections and more likely to fund challengers than are nonparty organizations. The impact of an increased role for party organizations in campaign finance systems is illustrated by simulating the distribution of campaign money and the results of state legislative elections under different scenarios of party funding.

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State Legislative Campaign Finance Research: A Review Essay

State Politics & Policy Quarterly ◽

10.1177/153244000200200204 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 2 (2) ◽

pp. 176-178 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Graham P. Ramsden

Keyword(s):

Review Essay ◽

Campaign Finance ◽

Theory Building ◽

Campaign Contributions ◽

Legislative Elections ◽

Finance Reform ◽

Field State ◽

State Legislative Elections ◽

The Impact ◽

State Legislative

Over the last 10 years, a great deal of research has been conducted in what had been a neglected field—state legislative campaign finance. Much of this research is motivated by concerns about the impact of money on democracy in state legislative elections. This essay reviews that work critically, looking particularly at studies of spending levels, campaign contributions and fundraising, spending and voting, and campaign finance reform. Comparing campaign finance systems across the states facilitates theory building, provides empirical leverage with which to test hypotheses developed at the congressional level, and allows us to test the efficacy of campaign finance reforms.

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

State Politics & Policy Quarterly ◽

10.1177/1532440017739422 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 17 (4) ◽

pp. 465-488 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Thomas M. Carsey ◽

Jonathan Winburn ◽

William D. Berry

Keyword(s):

Legislative Elections ◽

Personal Note ◽

Electoral Support ◽

Constituency Service ◽

Using Data ◽

State Legislative Elections ◽

The Impact ◽

State Legislative

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.

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National Forces in State Legislative Elections

The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science ◽

10.1177/0002716216662454 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 667 (1) ◽

pp. 207-225 ◽

Cited By ~ 27

Author(s):

Steven Rogers

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

State Legislatures ◽

State Legislature ◽

State Legislators ◽

Presidential Approval ◽

Legislative Elections ◽

White House ◽

State Legislative Elections ◽

The Impact ◽

State Legislative

The race for the White House is at the top of the ticket, but voters will also choose more than 5,000 state legislators in November 2016. While voters elect and hold the president responsible for one job and state legislators for another, the outcomes of their elections are remarkably related. In analyses of elite and voter behavior in state legislative elections, I show that legislators affiliated with the president’s party—especially during unpopular presidencies—are the most likely to be challenged, and compared with individual assessments of the state legislature, changes in presidential approval have at least three times the impact on voters’ decision-making in state legislative elections. Thus, while state legislatures wield considerable policymaking power, legislators’ electoral fates appear to be largely out of their control.

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Political Connections, Allocation of Stimulus Spending, and the Jobs Multiplier

Finance and Economics Discussion Series ◽

10.17016/feds.2021.005r1 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2021 (005r1) ◽

pp. 1-52

Author(s):

Joonkyu Choi ◽

◽

Veronika Penciakova ◽

Felipe Saffie ◽

◽

...

Keyword(s):

Political Connections ◽

Firm Characteristics ◽

Legislative Elections ◽

Standard Deviation Increase ◽

Fiscal Stimulus ◽

Ex Post ◽

Variable Approach ◽

State Legislative Elections ◽

The Impact ◽

State Legislative

Using American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) data, we show that firms lever their political connections to win stimulus grants and that public expenditure channeled through politically connected firms hinders job creation. We build a unique database that links information on campaign contributions, state legislative elections, firm characteristics, and ARRA grant allocation. Using exogenous variation in political connections based on ex-post close elections held before ARRA, we causally show that politically connected firms are 38 percent more likely to secure a grant. Based on an instrumental variable approach, we also establish that a one standard deviation increase in the share of politically connected ARRA spending lowers the number of jobs created per $1 million spent by 7.1 jobs. Therefore, the impact of fiscal stimulus is not only determined by how much is spent, but also by how the expenditure is allocated across recipients.

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The Influence of Turnout and Constituency Diversity on Voting in Southern State House Races in the 1990s

American Review of Politics ◽

10.15763/issn.2374-7781.2002.23.0.141-166 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 23 ◽

pp. 141-166

Author(s):

Joseph A. Aistrup

Keyword(s):

South Carolina ◽

Congressional Elections ◽

The Political ◽

Legislative Elections ◽

Southern State ◽

The Subject ◽

State Legislative Elections ◽

The Impact ◽

The Relationship ◽

State Legislative

This research focuses on assessing the impact of participation on voting in southern state legislative elections in the 1990s. While turnout is the subject of much study as a dependent variable (Hill and Leighley 1999; Bullock, Gaddie, and Kuzenski 1995; Weber 2000, 233-246; Gaddie and Bullock 1997; Davidson 1994; Hogan 1999), its relationship to southern state legislative outcomes has not been extensively studied. I find that higher levels of turnout lead to increased votes for the Republicans. While this was the case only in South Carolina in the early 1990s, by the late 1990s, this pattern was consistent across five of the ten states under study. These findings suggest that the relationship between participation and voting in state legislative elections in the South may be becoming similar to congressional elections (Campbell 1996). This study also focuses on the influences of constituency diversity on voting outcomes at the state house level. In recent years, most of the discussion regarding the influences of constituency characteristics has been centered around assessing the impact of creating numerous majority-minority districts during the 1990s redistricting (see Lublin and Voss 2000). This study moves beyond this debate to assess the influence of constituency diversity on aggregate voting outcomes, beyond majority-minority districts. Using a measure of constituency diversity (based on the work of William Koetzle (1998)), which measures the “political diversity” of districts, the findings support the contention that constituency diversity has a significant influence in structuring aggregate voting outcomes.

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