ABSTRACT
The most explorations of “incumbency advantage” have confirmed that incumbents are preferred because of their name recognition and reputation, but they have also revealed that challengers are perceived by the electorate to be weak—often unknown—candidates. The high re-election rate of incumbents is coupled with the increasingly high margins of their victories, which in turn is buttressed by the large number of incumbents who run unopposed. Four facts about the campaign finance system affect the shortage of qualified candidates: the total cost of campaigns has continued to rise; incumbents have little difficulty raising money; challengers do; and political action committees have abounded and give most of their money to incumbents. Incumbents have no difficulty raising money for re-election; many of them have no need to spend a great deal. Therefore, a growing number of winning incumbents have an increasingly large amount of money left over after their campaigns.
