Negative Campaigning by US Senate Candidates

Abstract

This article examines the use of negative campaigning in US Senate election campaigns from 1988 to 1998. We explore the relationship of negativism to candidate characteristics, campaign activities and the political context of these elections by testing seven hypotheses about candidates' use of negative campaigning. Our results suggest that such practices are disproportionately employed by candidates with relatively few campaign resources, by challengers, by Republicans, by candidates in open seat races, and by candidates whose opponents `go negative'. Indeed, we estimate almost a one-for-one feedback of the opponent's negativism on the negativism of Senate candidate's own campaigns - which, borrowing from the international relations field, we refer to as Mutually Assured Detraction, or MAD. The article concludes with a discussion of the possible impact and desirability of negative campaigning in American elections, and speculation on the implications for politics in other democracies.