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Reassessing the Incumbency Effect

Jeffrey M. Stonecash

Cambridge University Press, December 2008

Reassessing the Incumbency Effect
Incumbents in the U.S. House of Representatives have increased their vote percentages in recent decades, raising questions about the efficacy of elections in making members responsive. The evidence, however, indicates there has been no improvement in the electoral fortunes of incumbents in the last 50 years. Only Republicans have improved their electoral fortunes as a result of realignment. This valuable book provides a very different interpretation of how incumbents have fared in recent decades, and the interpretation is supported by non-technical data analysis and presentation.