Incumbent Contributions to the Congressional Campaign Committees, 1990-2000

Abstract

House incumbents now regularly transfer significant sums of campaign money from their reelection accounts to the party campaign committees. This article conducts the first comprehensive exploration of this activity. After briefly reviewing the federal regulations that govern member contributions to the campaign committees, I present data for the 1989-1990 through 1999-2000 election cycles that illustrate the steep rise in these contributions. I then test several hypotheses about members’ willingness to support their parties financially in light of the electoral conflict between incumbents and parties described by Jacobson (1985-1986). I find that a member’s leadership status in the House and ability to raise “surplus” campaign dollars are the two most consistent determinants of his or her financial support for the party campaign committees.