ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to bring to bear the systematic study of patterns of presidential attention to the states in order to better inform discussion of the important question of Electoral College reform. It also brings relevant evidence to bear by examining how presidents allocate what is perhaps their scarcest asset, their time. The chapter focuses on the five presidential first terms that comprise twenty years of this twenty-eight year period, those of Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. The Electoral College is often criticized for being undemocratic and for providing incentives that shape and distort the attention that presidential candidates pay to the various states during their campaigns for the White House. The relationship between presidential events and electoral competitiveness is not nearly as straightforward as that between events and electoral size. The states that are the least competitive on average uniformly receive very little presidential attention.
