Party Campaign Contributions in US House Elections.

Effective parties promise to make elections more competitive and incumbents more accountable by overcoming pro-incumbent biases in the current campaign finance system. To do so, parties must channel electoral resources including money away from incumbents and towards challengers and open seat candidates running in competitive elections. This is a tall order since incumbents control the party purse strings by holding sway over the congressional campaign committees that allocate most party money in congressional elections. Drawing on data from US congressional elections from 1982 through 2000, we evaluate how parties allocate their campaign contributions across candidates. Our analyses indicate that parties follow a universalism norm by giving at least token contributions to nearly all viable candidates. However, the amount of contributions to high quality challengers and open seat candidates is significantly larger than for incumbents, even after controlling for the candidates' electoral prospects. Campaign finance reforms that stem the flow of money to parties, such as those recently enacted may undermine democratic processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]