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Incumbency Protection

Americans are justifiably angry that key challenges such as reviving the economy, defending the nation, and encouraging the growth of employment remain unresolved by their leaders.

Are career politicians too comfortable in “managing,” rather than resolving problems? Some believe that incumbents, relatively secure in their positions, aren’t doing enough to address the problems faced by the citizenry.  In some states, such as New York, more elected officials leave office through death or indictment rather than by losing re-election campaigns.

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“Low contribution limits are especially attractive to incumbent legislators because they allow these officials to claim that they are not influenced by lobbyists or special interests (although research refutes the contention that the presence or absence of contribution limits has any effect on the factors influencing elected officials), and because low limits often perversely serve as an incumbency protection measure. Challengers, who oftern have significantly less name recognition and lack an established donor base, typically spend more time fundraising than incumbents. In this manner, limits on the size of campaign contributions have the effect of disproportionately harming challengers. This is yet another reason why the Center argues against the imposition of low contribution limits on what individuals can contribute to their favored candidates.”

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Incumbents Retain Unfair Advantages in Elections

Elected officials at all levels have been receiving dismal approval ratings from the public.  Despite that, incumbents, from the President down to local city officials, continue to be re-elected at extraordinarily high rates.

A prime example can be seen in the New York State Legislature, which, despite numerous scandals, has a 96% re-election rate.

How does this occur?  Many believe it is due to the unfair advantages provided to incumbents.  According to a Rasmussen poll,  68%  of those queried think election rules are rigged for Incumbents.

Gerrymandering is among the most well known.  The ability of incumbents to directly shape the districts they run in certainly provides an exceptional advantage.  But that is only part of the problem.  There are numerous other practices that tip the scales in favor of incumbents. Some are unavoidable, but many can be eliminated.
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Incumbents, of course, can more easily garner publicity through their regular activities. They tend to receive more invitations to speaking events, providing them with greater opportunities to directly interact with groups of voters. This can be counteracted by including challengers in public forums in the months immediately preceding an election.

The practice of allowing incumbents to use government funds to print and distribute newsletters which feature their successes or activities essentially provides a voter-paid vehicle for what in reality is campaign literature. There should be a blanket prohibition on this practice for at least three months before election day. Indeed, in the era of the 24 hour news cycle and the internet, it can legitimately be asked whether snail-mail newsletters are necessary at all.

Arcane and complicated campaign filing requirements (which may have been personally approved by the incumbent) tend to drain the resources and time of challengers in a much larger degree than they do for elected officials, who have the staff and financial resources to deal with the problem. It is highly doubtful that the founding fathers envisioned an electoral system in which candidates had to answer to a collection of bureaucrats to practice their right to run for office.

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Conyers Decision Reinforces Unfair Advantages of Incumbnents

Despite failing to meet the signature requirements to run for re-election, a federal judge has ordered Rep. John Conyers (D-Michigan) restored to the ballot.

Michigan’s Secretary of State had ordered Conyers name removed because he failed to collect the appropriate number of petition signatures.  The Conyers campaign used collectors who were not registered voters, and the signatures collected were not valid according to Michigan law.

But Conyers has been in office for 49 years, and received consideration that his challenger clearly would not have been given.

A growing trend towards enhancing the already considerable advantages of incumbents, whether they be president of the United States or a local town legislator, has virtually stagnated the American governing process.  Ironically, many of the approaches advertised as levelling the playing field such as campaign finance regulations, have served only to enhance incumbents’ power due to the fact that challengers rarely have the experience or the resources to comply with complex and onerous regulations and filing requirements.
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A study by Politico notes that 90% of House members and 91% of senators who sought re-election in 2012 were successful, as was President Obama.  The rate is difficult to explain beyond the power of incumbency, since there was widespread dissatisfaction with both federal legislators and the White House.

Beyond special treatment by Boards of Election and gimmicks such as campaign regulations that favor incumbents, a media that largely under-reports challengers also plays a significant role.

Limiting the role of spending, often advertised as a means of levelling the playing field, tends to help incumbents.  Challengers, with less name recognition and less access to media attention, generally need to spend more to be competitive.