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Paying the Price for a Seat on the Bench: Campaign Spending in Contested State Intermediate Appellate Court Elections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2021

Brian Frederick  and
Matthew J. Streb
Brian Frederick
Affiliation:
Bridgewater State College
Matthew J. Streb
Affiliation:
Northern Illinois University
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Abstract

The subject of judicial elections has garnered an increasing amount of attention by scholars over the past decade. Campaign spending in judicial elections has occupied a central focus of this research, but most of this scholarship has examined campaign finance at the state supreme court level. Our study departs from that tradition by examining what factors predict campaign expenditures in 172 contested state intermediate appellate court (IAC) races from 2000–06. The results indicate that the characteristics of the race, institutional factors, and the context of the campaign all influence how much money is spent in IAC elections. Although similar in some respects to state legislative and supreme court elections, notable differences exist as well.

Type
Research Article
Information
State Politics & Policy Quarterly , Volume 8 , Issue 4 , Winter 2008 , pp. 410 - 429
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

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