Campaign Spending and Electoral Outcomes: 1977 Kentucky House and 1978 U.S. House and Senate Elections

摘要

This research examined the relationship between campaign spending and electoral success in 1977 Kentucky House races and 1978 U.S. House and Senate races. The results indicated that the winning candidate’s percentage of campaign expenditure has a significant effect on the candidate’s vote percentage. This effect is greater in U.S. House races than in U.S. Senate races. In Kentucky House races, the effect of spending on electoral success was only significant in open seat races. Regression results confirmed the importance of challenger spending in congressional races and indicated that the effect of challenger expenditures on votes is much greater than the effect of incumbent expenditures. Efforts to use challenger expenditures to predict incumbent expenditures were only partially successful. Finally, regression analysis designed to link constituency characteristics to the effectiveness of campaign spending was unsuccessful.