Running on Iraq or Running from Iraq? Conditional Issue Ownership in the 2006 Midterm Elections

Abstract

The authors examine the role of Iraq as a campaign issue in the 2006 midterm elections, analyzing more than 400 television advertisements produced by ninety-four candidates in forty-seven competitive races for the U.S. House of Representatives. Generally, the authors find that the issue of the war was not as central an element of candidate appeals as the conventional wisdom and media storyline leading up to Election Day implied. On the issue of Iraq, as well as other issues central to 2006, the authors find evidence that challengers pursued different issue strategies than either incumbents or open-seat candidates of the same party.