Journal of Electoral Studies

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Home Issues Backissues Volume 31, No.1 The Campaign Contributions in U.S. Congress Elections: A Tobit Analysis of Political Action Committees

The Campaign Contributions in U.S. Congress Elections: A Tobit Analysis of Political Action Committees

Ding-Ming Wang and Hsuan-Ying Hou
2006 / 11
Volume 13, No.2

pp.37-74
10.6612/tjes.2006.13.02.37-74

Abstract

Interest groups in the democracy have been playing an important role in policy making. The most influential way to impact the public policy and law making is lobbying the congress. Of all different tactics of lobbying, money donation, especially the campaign contribution, is recognized the most effective approach. Because of the changes in campaign techniques and process since 1950's, it requires more money to support the campaign expenditures. Candidates therefore rely intensely on the donations from their supporters and interest groups. Based on the importance of campaign donations, this paper focuses on how Congressmen candidates attract money from different Political Action Committee (PAC). In particular, we explore the influence of candidates' party affiliation, ideology, committee setting, seniority, gender, race and age. Since PAC's contribution is characterized as the censored data, we use Tobit model for the analysis.

Keywords

campaign contributions

political action committees

censored data

Tobit model