Electing America's Governors The Politics of Executive Elections

This first comprehensive and quantitative examination of gubernatorial elections examines key issues in understanding elections, including the impact of incumbent and challenger expenditures on election outcomes, retrospective voting, voter turnout, the emergence of quality challengers to incumbents, and political

David L. Leal is an Associate Professor of Government at the University of Texas at Austin. He received a PhD in Political Science from Harvard University and a BA in Political Science from Stanford University. In addition to state politics, his research interests include Latino politics--particularly Latino political behavior and public opinion--and public policy. He has published over thirty journal articles and book chapters on these and other topics. Dr. Leal was an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow from 1998 to 1999 and is currently a member of the APSA Task Force on Religion and American Democracy.

Introduction * Election Outcomes: Campaign Expenditures and Candidate Quality * Election Outcomes: State and National Economic and Social Conditions * Voter Turnout: Competition, Candidates, and Conditions * Candidate Quality Revisited * Gubernatorial vs. Senate Election Dynamics: Progressive Ambition * Gubernatorial vs. Senate Election Dynamics: Electoral Competition and Campaign Intensity * Gubernatorial vs. Senate Election Dynamics: Third Party and Independent Campaigns * Conclusions Introduction * Election Outcomes: Campaign Expenditures and Candidate Quality * Election Outcomes: State and National Economic and Social Conditions * Voter Turnout: Competition, Candidates, and Conditions * Candidate Quality Revisited * Gubernatorial vs. Senate Election Dynamics: Progressive Ambition * Gubernatorial vs. Senate Election Dynamics: Electoral Competition and Campaign Intensity * Gubernatorial vs. Senate Election Dynamics: Third Party and Independent Campaigns * Conclusions