ABSTRACT
If campaign contributions have the same effect on the relationship between legislators and interest groups that gifts have on other social relationships, then donations are more likely to influence behavior on critical votes because those votes are most valuable to interest groups. If the vote on a piece of legislation is close, then a group will put more effort into lobbying on that bill. In addition, knowing how important the vote is to the group, a member to whom they have contributed will be more responsive to this pressure, because that member will identify the vote as a perfect reciprocal offering: it helps the group substantially, but will probably not impact that member’s electoral security.
