Sophomore surge

A sophomore surge (sometimes referred to in the United Kingdom as first-term incumbency bonus[1][2]) is a term used in the political science of the United States Congress that refers to an increase in votes that congressional candidates (candidates for the House of Representatives) usually receive when running for their first re-election. The phrase has been adopted in Australia by psephologist Malcolm Mackerras who is well known for his electoral pendulums.

History

This phenomenon first started in the 1960s. As of 1998, freshman candidates running for a second term now get eight to ten percent more votes than when they were elected for their first term. (Over ninety percent of all incumbent House members are reelected.) Senate members also currently benefit from a sophomore surge, though it is to a lesser degree.

The reason for the sophomore surge is attributed to the fact that congressmen have figured out how to run personal campaigns rather than party campaigns. They make use of their free, or “franked,” mail; frequent home trips; radio and television broadcasts; and service distribution to their districts in order to create a good opinion of themselves, not their party, among their constituents. They also promise to “clean things up” in the federal government if they are re-elected.

gollark: > are they thoyes.> 40 years for us to figure out mass recycling idkI mean, maybe, but you still have to go out to the deserts and replace all of them, and they'll slowly degrade in effectiveness before that.
gollark: I think because the main advantage was that it wouldn't produce neutrons in some sort of fusion reaction, and neutrons cause problems, except it still would because of the fuels each fusing with themselves.
gollark: I think I read somewhere that it wasn't very useful (he3) but i forgot why.
gollark: I too want vast swathes of land to be covered in generators which will not even work half the time because of "night" and "poor weather", which are hilariously energy-expensive to produce in the first place, and which will break after 40 years.
gollark: I mean, in a sense, maybe it is.

References
  1. Jackson, Gavin; Shubber, Kadhim (22 April 2015). "Punters place more bets on Ed Miliband as UK prime minister". Financial Times. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
  2. Cowley, Philip; Stuart, Mark. "Being Policed? Or Just Pleasing Themselves?" (PDF). University of Nottingham. Retrieved 10 February 2017.


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