Jeffrey W. Koch

Candidate Gender and Women's Psychological Engagement in Politics

In previous research scholars consistently have documented that women in the United States are less psychologically engaged in the political process than men. Utilizing the unique electoral circumstances surrounding the 1990 and 1992 Senate elections, I determine if the presence of female candidates increases the psychological engagement of women in the electoral process. The empirical analyses suggest that the presence of female candidates by itself does not serve to increase womens engagement in the electoral process. Instead, the combination of issues involving womens representation in politics and female candidates serves to heighten womens psychological engagement in the electoral process. The importance of these results for a symbolic theory of representation and womens engagement in politics is discussed.

Political Cynicism And Third Party Support In American Presidential Elections

Recent scholarship on American voting behavior contends that political cynicism prompts citizens to support a third party candidate. I maintain this research fails to consider an alternative direction of causality between political trust and third party support. Using an exogenous measure of political trust, one uncontaminated by candidate preference, analysis demonstrates that political cynicism is shaped by preference for an American third party rather than being causally prior to that preference. Students of American electoral behavior must consider the possibility that major third party candidacies shape supporters’ political orientations and concerns in much the same manner as the major political parties do.

Electoral Competitiveness and the Voting Decision Evidence from the Pooled Senate Election Study

Scholarship on congressional elections holds that competitive elections are different from noncompetitive elections. Specifically, some scholars argue that the level of competitiveness determines the criteria or the weight of various criteria for the voting decision. Using the 1988–1990–1992 Pooled Senate Election Study, this research finds that enhanced electoral competitiveness increases the importance of assessments of presidential performance on the voting decision. These effects are particularly large for voters with high levels of educational attainment. Contrary to previous research, in highly competitive elections the role of ideological considerations is smaller than in less competitive elections.

Candidate status, presidential approval, and voting for US senator

Abstract This research tests whether the effects of assessments of presidential performance on the senate voting decision are largest for out-party incumbents and smaller for out-party incumbents and candidates in open-seat contests, a pattern suggested by the restricted in-party culpability thesis. Analysis of data from the 1988–1990–1992 Pooled Senate Election Study reveals that the effects of appraisals of presidential performance are greatest in open-seat contests and those with in-party incumbents, contrary to the restricted in-party culpability thesis. For incumbents of the out-party and candidates in open-seat contests, the effects of assessments of presidential performance are principally a function of the competitiveness of the contest. Assessments of presidential performance shape the voting decision in contests with in-party incumbents regardless of the level of electoral competitiveness.