Communication Networks, Opinion Heterogeniety, and Incumbents? Advantages: A Study on the United States 2000 Congressional Election.

Social network studies suggest that congruence in the social background of network members has effects on voting choices, but the research has not extended to the subject of the effect of congruence in political opinions within social networks. Incorporating social networks into congressional election studies, this paper suggests that besides partisanship and other demographic factors, the heterogeneity of opinion within social networks also has an effect on voting choices. Based on the logistic regression analysis of NAES 2000 dataset, the findings show the following: first, the low heterogeneity or high homogeneity of political opinion within strong-tie social networks (i.e. family and close friends) increases the likelihood of favoring House and Senate incumbents. Second, the access to political news in the newspaper has a positive influence on favoring the incumbents in the Senate election. This paper then discusses the limitations and implications of the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]