The Legislative Connection in Congressional Campaign Finance: A Quasi-Experimental Study

这项提案审查了现任国会议员的竞选资金优势。 现任者和挑战者的竞选资源之间的差距通常被认为反映了现任者在立法机构的地位和活动。 然而，现任者的竞选资金优势的来源知之甚少。 通过一系列的准实验，本项目确定了在职者的财务优势在多大程度上来自于任职、立法机构中的职位或活动、或政治家的个人能力和资源。 通过使用议员之间的更替率，无论是在办公室内还是在国会的特定职位上，这项提案隔离了那些影响竞选资金分配的因素。 该项目建立了一个关于所有捐款和立法立场及活动的20年数据库。 具体政治行动委员会和个人向候选人提供的捐款数据取自联邦选举委员会的档案。 关于现任国会议员的立法职位和国会活动的数据来自国会图书馆信息服务和其他公共文件。 该数据集以及所有配对数据将提供给更广泛的政治科学界。 该项目将为关于竞选资金的辩论提供详细信息。

This proposal examines the campaign finance advantages held by incumbent Members of Congress. The disparity between incumbents' and challengers' campaign resources is commonly thought to reflect incumbents' positions and activities with the legislature. However, the sources of incumbents' campaign finance advantages are poorly understood. Through a series of quasi-experiments, this project ascertains the extent to which incumbents' financial advantages stem from office-holding, from positions or activities in the legislature, or from politicians' personal abilities and resources. By using turnover among members, both within office and within specific positions in Congress, this proposal isolates those factors that influence the distribution of campaign funds. The project develops a twenty-year data base of all contributions and legislative positions and activities. Data on contributions from specific Political Action Committees and individuals to candidates are drawn from the files of the Federal Election Commission. Data on the legislative positions of incumbents and activities in Congress from the Library of Congress Information Service and other public documents. The data set, with all the pairings of data, will be made available to the wider political science community. This project will add detailed information to debates over campaign finance.