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Despite high success rates when they run for office, women are still underrepresented in federal, state, and local elective office. Past research has explored factors that contribute to the scarcity of female candidates on the state and federal level, but little attention has been paid to the local level. This article begins to fill that gap by exploring electoral and fundraising patterns in mayoral and council elections in seven cities. We find that, similar to state and federal elections, women do just as well as men when they seek office but fewer women run. Further, of the women who do mount campaigns their backgrounds are quite similar to male candidates, raise comparable amounts of campaign funds, and receive contributions from the same sources. In general, we found few differences between male and female candidates. These findings highlight the importance of self-selection in the decision to run for office. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines campaign finance activity in two large school districts: San Francisco, California and Hillsborough County, Florida. Using datasets containing contributions to school board candidates, it explores from whom candidates raise campaign funds. The findings indicate that entities with material interests in school board decisions, such as teachers' unions and businesses with school district contracts, are active contributors but do not dominate fund-raising activity. School board candidates typically assemble broad fund-raising coalitions comprising of a diverse range of groups and individuals. Even though established interests are often part of fund-raising coalitions, few candidates rely heavily on them for funds. These groups may exercise substantial influence through other means, but they typically do not use the campaign finance system as a means through which they exert influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mayoral candidates need to assemble a fundraising coalition so they can raise sufficient funds to be competitive. What is the nature of those coalitions? Are they narrow partnerships of like-minded interests, or are they broad alliances encompassing many different groups? Also, are the coalitions assembled by opposing candidates fundamentally different, or do most candidates receive their funds from the same sources? This article explores these questions through an analysis of five open seat mayoral elections in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle. Most candidates assemble broad coalitions of many different groups, and because of this breadth candidates often have internally inconsistent coalitions (especially labor-backed candidates). Further, the fundraising coalitions of opposing candidates are usually quite similar. The results show that mayoral elections are not characterized by competing coalitions of donors and that voters who desire to use financial backing as a factor influencing their decision have limited choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When candidates run for municipal office, do they rely on campaign contributions from suburbanites? This research note explores this question by analyzing fund-raising networks in four central cities: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle. The majority of campaign contributions to mayoral and city council candidates come from within their city. While the fund-raising networks of central-city candidates extend into the suburbs, they only do so partially. In particular, they only connect to a handful of wealthy suburbs that are geographically close to the central city. Regional fund-raising networks are limited, indicating that the flow of political money does not mirror the economic and policy interdependence that has been documented by new regionalists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper explores the political significance of Asian American campaign finance activity in municipal elections. We examined both the donation patterns of Asian contributors and the fundraising coalitions assembled by Asian candidates. From the contributor perspective, we found that Asians contributed in roughly proportional levels to their population as a whole, and were willing to contribute not only to coethnics but also to Asian candidates of other ethnicities and to non-Asians. As for Asian candidates, we found that they relied heavily on Asian contributors for campaign funds, especially coethnics. Asian candidates’ ability to draw on ethnic networks for campaign funds is an important political resource that enhances their ability to mount competitive campaigns. However, the value of these networks is limited by candidates’ inability or unwillingness to form panethnic fundraising coalitions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]