POLS 125 Chapter 6: Congressional Elections:

• School: University of Vermont
• Department: Political Science
• Course: POLS 125
• Professor: Deborah Lynn Guber

Document Summary

Few politicians like the experience of fund raising but spending money on political campaigns predates the constitution. Population growth, technological advancements, suburbanization or other changes associated with modern mass democracy have driven up the costs of campaigning. The campaign for resources begins earlier than the campaign for votes and requires candidates to court sophisticated, goal-oriented groups and individuals. Significant inequality is exist in campaign resources. The typical house incumbent in a two-party contested race collects about four times more than a house challenger. Open seat candidates gather significant resources as well. Incumbents in jeopardy raised to more than twice as much as hopeful challengers. Competitive open seat candidates were more equal with regard to the amount raised: resource discrepancies in uncompetitive incumbent-challenger elections are usually much larger than in competitive ones. Incumbents raise more money than challengers because they tend to be more visible, popular and able to exploit the advantages of their office.