ABSTRACT
Women candidates in the United States no longer enjoy a “compassion advantage” when running against male candidates. First-time women congressional candidates in open seats are especially vulnerable to excessively aggressive negative attacks from their male opponents because (1) high-tech message delivery systems make attack campaigning easy; (2) attack messages attract more attention than positive messages and get the voters to pay attention; (3) large sums of money can be raised for these attacks from national interest groups by emphasizing the national importance of Congressional races; (4) first-time women candidates who are not elected officials do not have the public record and visibility that could insulate them from the abusive distortions of their views and even of their physical appearance; (5) the press does a poor job of covering suburban-rural races and independent fact checking is virtually nonexistent; and (6) since 9/11, terrorism has become a major issue and women are apt to be portrayed as too inexperienced to be trusted with protecting the national defense. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: <docdelivery@haworthpress.com> Website: <https://www.HaworthPress.com> © 2005 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.]
