Essay 11: Incumbents

     There are many interesting trends in the election results in the House and Senate of the U.S. Government. Many trends are produced by elections where incumbents run. Incumbents are people already in office that are attempting to be reelected.
     One trend seen in the graph is that incumbents tend to be reelected. This is shown by the high percentage of reelection, about 80 %, which is consistent throughout the time period of the graph. Another pattern is that incumbents win reelection more so in the House than the Senate. This is especially seen in the period of 1974 to 1982.

     Factors that contribute to incumbency advantages are campaign contributions and name recognition. Campaign contributions are helped by PACs by helping to find elections. More money means more TV time and ads. Name recognition is a huge advantage because the more popular name is the one more often chosen. The majority will pick the popular name. However, one consequence of incumbency advantage is that congress becomes stagnant because of little to no turn over and no new ideas.

http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/members/repository/sg_govpol_us_01_7046.pdf

the graph above shows reelection rates for incumbents in the House and Senate. From this information and your knowledge of of the US politics, perform the following 
tasks. (Fig 12.1)
a) identify two patterns displayed in the graph
b) identify 2 factors that contribute to incumbency advantage. Explain how each factor contributes to incumbency advantage.
c) Discuss one consequence of incumbency advantage for the US political process