Doctoral Dissertation Research: Money and State Supreme Court Elections

金钱在州最高法院选举中有什么影响？这些影响是否因选举制度和选举类型的不同而不同(现任-挑战者与空缺席位、初选与普通选举)？尽管没有一个政治学领域比选举研究受到更多的关注，但司法选举--美国大多数法官获得职位的手段--实际上被忽视了。这篇博士论文系统地分析和回答了两个核心问题：1)谁为州最高法院候选人捐款，他们捐款多少，他们捐款给谁？2)竞选捐款和支出如何影响州最高法院选举的结果？研究人员使用1990-1995年间所有要求司法职位候选人提交竞选财务报告的州最高法院竞争选举来审查这些问题。研究人员将为该项目收集的关于竞选捐款和支出的数据与梅林达·甘恩·霍尔(SES-9911166)和保罗·布雷斯(SES-9911082)收集的州最高法院选举数据库相结合。本文不仅将回答金钱是否影响州最高法院选举的问题，而且还将回答金钱如何以及在什么情况下影响州最高法院选举的问题。此外，通过比较金钱在州最高法院选举和其他职位选举中的影响，以及将党派选举与无党派选举和留任选举进行比较，本文将使我们能够更全面地了解影响选举过程的因素。

What are the effects of money in state supreme court elections? Do these effects vary across selection systems and type of elections (incumbent-challenger versus open seat, primaries versus general)? Despite the fact that no area of political science has received greater attention than the study of elections, judicial elections, the means by which the most judges in the United States attain their positions, have been virtually ignored. This doctoral dissertation systematically analyzes and answers two central questions: 1) who contributes to state supreme court candidates, how much do they give, and to whom do they give? and 2) how do campaign contributions and expenditures affect the outcomes of state supreme court elections? The researcher examines these questions using all contested elections for state supreme courts between 1990-1995 in all states that require candidates for judicial office to file campaign finance reports. The researcher combines data to be collected for this project on campaign contributions and expenditures with a database on state supreme court elections collected by Melinda Gann Hall (SES- 9911166) and Paul Brace (SES- 9911082). This dissertation will not only answer the question of whether money affects state supreme court elections, but also how and under what circumstances. Further, by comparing the influence of money in state supreme court elections to elections for other offices as well as comparing partisan elections to nonpartisan elections and retention elections, this dissertation will enable us to gain a more complete picture of the factors influencing the electoral process.