The Dynamics of Campaign Fundraising in House Elections

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Abstract
Examination of disaggregated Federal Election Commission fundraising data for 1985-1986 House candidates illustrates the tremendous financial advantage incumbents enjoy over challengers. Incumbents raise more money than challengers in every single period of the election cycle, particularly in the decisive time just before the election. Incumbents are also able to react quickly to well-financed opposition. Challengers, on the other hand, must raise money early to experience fundraising success later on, and they are unable to respond to incumbent fundraising by raising more money themselves. Our intraelection analysis, in sum, confirms many of the inferences other researchers have drawn from cross-sectional data.