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Written Assignment #2: The Incumbency Advantage
Unit II Paper: Measuring the Incumbency Advantage
As an institution, Congress isn’t rated very highly by Americans, yet the incumbency re-election rate is extraordinarily high. See the following:
http://news.gallup.com/poll/1600/congress-public.a...
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements...
For this Unit II paper, I want you to take a deeper dive into the Incumbency Advantage, exploring the concept and its elements, and do a little data mining to find evidence of it over time across three (3) states.
Discuss the incumbency advantage. What is it, what are its components, and why is it so pervasive in US Congressional Elections? Incorporate the above articles, as well as the following:
https://cusdi.org/faq/why-are-sitting-members-of-c...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/201...
Go to www.opensecrets.org, which is the website for the Center for Responsive Politics, an organization that tracks campaign contributions. Please do the following:
Click on the Menu, then choose Congressional Elections. In the STATE search box, search for the following states: Texas, Georgia and New Jersey.
For each state, present the rate of incumbent success for House seats (e.g., the # of incumbent winners/incum
Explanation & Answer
Attached.
Incumbency Advantage Paper Outline
An incumbent person refers to the present holder of a particular title or office.
The concept of incumbency advantage refers to the propensity of incumbents being re-elected
in various positions.
The concept of incumbency advantage mostly deals with congressional elections in the
United States.
This tendency arises from the existence of many benefits that will be discussed hence giving
rise to incumbency advantage; which is a common occurrence in congressional elections.
Components of Incumbency Advantage
In the United States, incumbent individuals have high re-election rates.
Jacobson notes that over the years, most of the congress members have had approval ratings
falling as low as eleven per cent but with ninety-six per cent incumbent re-election level.
This occurrence can be explained using the concept of incumbency advantage, which has
various components.
They include the existence of office bearers in the congress and their subsequent re-election.
The propensity of incumbents being re-elected in the congressional elections is attributed to
some factors that give them the advantage hence the pervasiveness of the concept.
Some of these factors, according to Cusdi Organization include time, visibility, crusade
organization, and money.
Time factor gives incumbents more contact with voters than their opponents.
Visibility factor dictates that incum...
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