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Constituency Congruency and Candidate Competition in U.S. House Elections
Author(s) -
CARSON JAMIE L.,
CRESPIN MICHAEL H.,
EAVES CARRIE P.,
WANLESS EMILY
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
legislative studies quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.728
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1939-9162
pISSN - 0362-9805
DOI - 10.1111/j.1939-9162.2011.00022.x
Subject(s) - competition (biology) , legislature , context (archaeology) , set (abstract data type) , state (computer science) , political science , public administration , law , computer science , geography , ecology , biology , archaeology , algorithm , programming language
Research on candidate competition has focused on how much context matters in emergence decisions and election outcomes. If a candidate has previously held elected office, one additional consideration that may influence entry decisions is the relative degree of overlap between the candidate's current constituency and the “new” set of voters she is seeking to represent. Using GIS software, we derive a measure of the challenger's personal vote by focusing on constituency congruency between state legislative and congressional districts. Results suggest state legislators are more likely to run for a seat in the U.S. House if constituency congruency is relatively high.