Browsing by Subject "State Politics"

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    Gubernatorial coattail effects in state legislative elections : a reexamination
    (2013-12-11) Lang, Matthew Joseph; Dusso, Aaron; Vargus, Brian S.; Ferguson, Margaret Robertson
    Prior studies on state legislative elections have found gubernatorial coattails playing a key role; however, they fail to examine the temporal and state-based trends of this phenomena. Using precinct level data from nine states (Alabama, Arkansas, California, Minnesota, New York, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming), over two election cycles (2002 and 2006), I measure the importance a state’s ideological makeup, and a governor’s institutional powers has on gubernatorial coattails. Findings reaffirm the importance of coattails, and previously researched variables; however, the addition of the above measures greatly affects coattail strength, dependent on host of controlling factors.