Research
Articles
CONOR M. DOWLING
Yale University
STEVEN B. LEM
Kutztown University
Explaining Major and
Third Party Candidate Entry in U.S. Gubernatorial Elections, 1980–2005
While much scholarly research has focused on the quality of candidates in U.S. elections,
the quantity of candidate participation has received much less attention. Consequently,
there is little systematic evidence on what factors stimulate or dampen
candidate entry into electoral contests, especially at the state level. In this article, we
examine the effects of electoral laws, states' social and political climates, and incumbency
on gubernatorial candidacies. We test our claims using an event-count model
with the number of candidates contesting each gubernatorial election from 1980 to
2005 as the outcome of interest. We divide total candidate participation into major
and third party candidates to observe whether the factors affect neither, one, or both
types of candidacies. We find that electoral laws and incumbency play an important
role in determining the number of candidacies in these elections, but the effect of
these factors varies for the two types of candidates.
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