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Do Campaign Finance Reforms Insulate Incumbents from Competition? New Evidence from State Legislative Elections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2020

Jordan Butcher Open the ORCID record for Jordan Butcher [Opens in a new window]  and
Jeffrey Milyo Open the ORCID record for Jeffrey Milyo [Opens in a new window]
Jordan Butcher
Affiliation:
University of Missouri
Jeffrey Milyo
Affiliation:
University of Missouri
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Extract

Variations in state campaign finance regulations across states and over time provide an opportunity to test the effects of reforms on the electoral success of incumbent state legislators. We use the most recent state legislative election returns dataset to test whether state campaign finance reforms help or hinder incumbents. Our analysis of nearly 66,000 contests in 33 years reveals that campaign contribution limits and partial public financing have little impact on incumbent reelection prospects. However, full public financing and prohibitions on corporate independent expenditures significantly increase the probability of incumbent reelection.

Information

Type
Symposium: State Legislative Elections of 2018
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 53 , Issue 3 , July 2020 , pp. 460 - 464
Copyright
© American Political Science Association 2020

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References

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