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A Comparison of Voting for U.S. Senator and Representative in 1978

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Alan I. Abramowitz
Alan I. Abramowitz*
Affiliation:
College of William and Mary
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Abstract

This article compares voting for U.S. senator and representative in 1978. Analysis of data from the Center for Political Studies 1978 Election Study reveals that incumbents were better known and more positively evaluated than challengers, but House incumbents enjoyed a much greater advantage than Senate incumbents. The invisibility of most House challengers was a serious obstacle to accountability in House elections. Senate challengers were much more visible to the electorate. In addition, ideology and party identification had a greater impact on evaluations of Senate candidates than on evaluations of House candidates. Evaluations of House incumbents appear to have been based largely on frequent positive contacts between voters and their representative. As a result, ideological voting was more prevalent in Senate elections than in House elections.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 74 , Issue 3 , September 1980 , pp. 633 - 640
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1980

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References

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