the significance of incumbency Flashcards
incumbency is when a candidate currently
holding a seat runs to retain it
the success of incumbent candidates is very high as they are
hard to defeat
in the 2022 HoR elections x of incumbents who ran for re election were elected
94%
- 14 were defeated in primaries and just 9 were defeated at the general election
in the 2022 senate elections all x incumbents who ran for re election won this was this first time this happened since 2024
28
the success of incumbents could be used to suggest that congressional elections have little
impact and democracy is weak as the personnel of congress changes little
this being said few incumbents who are defeated can change the control of the
senate/house from one party to the other , as was the case with the house in 2022
some states have tried to pass laws introducing term limits on their representatives but this was
struck down as unconstitutional by the SC
on the other hand it can be argued that the signficiany of incumbency is overstated with the success of incumbents actually only
reflecting the partisan tilt of districts/states
how are incumbents significant in the use of office and financial advantage ?
elected representatives can use their place in office to establish their popularity and attract funding from major donors
incumbents have greater name recognition and can attract funding and support by showing a proven track record of supporting their consitutient and donors intrests
examples of how how are incumbents are significant in the use of office and financial advantage
- 2022 senate elections incumbents raised an average of $29 million around 14X the amount of challengers who raised an average of just over $2million
- Trumps impeachment for the 2nd time in 2022 , just 7/50 republican senators voted to convict him , as strong support for trump in their constituency
how are incumbents significant in safe seats and gerrymandering ?
the first past the post system has led to a large number of safe seats in which the result is all but decided before the election
in some districts in the HoR this problem is made worse by gerrymandering : when state legislatures draw up congressional district boundaries to benefit their own party
examples of how incumbents are significant in safe seats and gerrymandering
- most famous example of gerrymandering was operation REDMAP led by republicans by 2008 , targeted democrat states due to red-draw their district boundaries with huge amounts if campaign sending , so redraw boundaries in their favour , most successful in Pennsylvania
- in 2008 obama won Pennsylvania and 12/18 congressional districts were won by democrats
- 2012 Obama won again but with just 5/18 democrat districts , due to successful republican gerrymandering
- these boundaries were then overturned by the Pennsylvania SC
how are incumbents significant in pork barrel legislation ?
when a representative proposes an amendment to legislation that will benefit a particular group in their constituency in order to help their re election chances
representatives sometimes only agree to vote for a bill if this ammendment is added , often leads to unnecessary spending
these are often known as earmarks to bills
examples of how incumbents are significant in the use of pork barrel legislation
- in the financial year 2023 it is estimated that $26 billion was spent on earmarks
- senator Richard Shelby , alone passed 18 earmarks costing over $666 million total
- most famous example of pork barrel legislation is the ‘ bridge to nowhere ‘ a bridge in Alaska to an island with just 50 residents that cost $223M , secured by republican senator for Alaska Ted Stevens
in recent years it has become far more common for incumbents to face primary challenged to their nomination from within their own party , house incumbents are much more likely
then incumbent senators to face a challenge and be defeated
in the 34 years between 1982-2016 just 74 house incumbents lost primaries , in 2022 alone
14 house incumbents were defeated in primaries
primary challenges largely involve radicals targetting
moderates
democratic socialists of America member AOC defeated Joseph Crowley in
New Yorks 14th congressional district
in 2022 the HoR elections , of the 10 republicans who supported the second impeachment of tump …
6 ran for reelection and 4 of these were unseated by trump backed challengers , including Liz Cheney
the threat of primary challenged from the more radical wings of their party has also been important in
influencing the behaviour of incumbent members of congress
the threat of being challenged from the right forced many incumbent republicans to toughen up on their stance on
immigration including late Senator John McCain in Arizona
the threat of primary challenge was likely why so few republican congressmen/congresswomen and senators voted to
impeach or convict trump in 2022
