Continuity and change in congressional campaigns

My dissertation builds on the previous scholarship of congressional campaigns with a longitudinal examination of how the tone and content of televised advertisements in congressional campaigns unfold across the careers of members of Congress. In their use of negative, partisan, and policy rhetoric in their ad airings - I find longitudinal patterns of continuity and change which are both motivated by their pursuit of reelection and their limited ability to learn about the effectiveness of their campaign strategies. From my longitudinal analysis, I reveal novel insights about how past experiences contextualize how MCs respond to their present circumstances. Incumbents do not view each election in total isolation from their previous campaigns. Instead, they often view their current race as an extension of their previous race. In turn, a stable electoral environment across successive elections often results in consistent campaign behavior across successive elections. Conversely, a changing electoral environment often begets changes in campaign behavior across consecutive races. Furthermore, the stability of their electoral environment conditions the extent to which MCs are sensitive to their challenger’s campaign rhetoric. MCs in newly competitive races are most sensitive to their challenger’s rhetoric, while MCs in consistently safe races are the least sensitive to their challenger’s campaigns.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Political Science

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2021

Author dc:creator

• Perez, Eristeo Jacob

Contributors dc:contributor

• Sulkin, Tracy
• Mondak, Jeff
• Rudolph, Thomas
• Sin, Gisela

• Campaigns
• congressional campaigns
• elections
• American politics

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2021 Eristeo Perez

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/110668

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/110668