Determinants of Spending by House Challengers, 1974-84

Abstract

The ways in which strategic politicians target House incumbents thought to be vulnerable to electoral challenge are of great interest to those concerned with the functioning of Congress as a representative institution. Previous research has shown that a narrow electoral margin draws strong opposition. We extend this line of analysis by examining the effects of constituency attentiveness, perquisite use, exogenous district partisanship and ideology, and roll call voting behavior on challenger spending from 1974 through 1984. With the possible exception of frequent trips to the district by Democratic incumbents, constituency attentiveness does not deter a strong challenge, but proper ideological positioning does have a substantial payoff. More liberal Republicans and more conservative Democrats face weaker challenges.