The Political Geography of Campaign Finance Fundraising and Contribution Patterns in Presidential Elections, 2004-2012

The Political Geography of Campaign Finance examines the distribution of political campaign contributions in the 2004, 2008, and 2012 preprimary election periods. Using aggregated individual level data, the authors determine if certain areas contribute more to presidential candidates in different stages of the campaign, and if these patterns are independent of wealth and partisanship. Unlike previous research, this book examines individual counties over multiple election cycles.

Joshua L. Mitchell is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Arkansas, USA. He research focuses on political geography, spatial analysis, and policy diffusion.

Karen Sebold is Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Arkansas, USA and has reviewed articles for the American Review of Politics and American Politics Research. She has written an article on her research on the campaign finance of political candidates published in P.S. Political Science.

Andrew Dowdle is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Arkansas, USA and the former editor of The American Review of Politics. His previous work has appeared in a number of publications including Presidential Studies Quarterly and Political Research Quarterly.

Scott Limbocker is a graduate student at Vanderbilt University, USA. His research focuses on election in American politics.

Patrick A. Stewart is the author of the book Debatable Humor: Laughing Matters on the 2008 Presidential Primary Campaign (2012). His research on the nonverbal behavior of political figures has been published in scholarly journals such as Political Psychology, Motivation and Emotion, and Humor: International Journal of Humor Research.

1. The Political Geography of Campaign Contributions
2. The Timing of Presidential Campaign Contributions
3. Participation in the Early Financing of Presidential Candidates
4. A Tale of Two Parties?: Do Republicans and Democratic Contenders Have Different Geographical Fundraising Bases?
5. Median Income: An Alternative Explanation for Campaign Contributions
7. Conclusion and Discussion