TY - JOUR
T1 - Penalizing the Party
T2 - Health Care Reform Issue Voting in the 2010 Election
AU - Konisky, David M.
AU - Richardson, Lilliard E.
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding for this project was provided by the University of Missouri.
PY - 2012/9
Y1 - 2012/9
N2 - Many political pundits characterized the 2010 election as a referendum on President Obama's health care reform law. The political science literature on issue voting, however, does not consistently demonstrate that these types of policy evaluations are central to citizens' vote choices. Moreover, existing theories suggest different predictions about how the health care reform issue would affect elections across different levels of government. Studying data from the 2010 Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES), the analysis indicates that those opposed to health care reform were less likely to vote for Democratic candidates in the U.S. House, the U.S. Senate, state gubernatorial, and state attorneys general contests, controlling for partisan affiliation, political ideology, perceptions of the economy, and evaluations of other salient policy issues. These findings suggest that, across the board, Democrats were penalized for their support of health care reform, and more generally provide evidence of the role of noneconomic issue voting in U.S. elections.
AB - Many political pundits characterized the 2010 election as a referendum on President Obama's health care reform law. The political science literature on issue voting, however, does not consistently demonstrate that these types of policy evaluations are central to citizens' vote choices. Moreover, existing theories suggest different predictions about how the health care reform issue would affect elections across different levels of government. Studying data from the 2010 Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES), the analysis indicates that those opposed to health care reform were less likely to vote for Democratic candidates in the U.S. House, the U.S. Senate, state gubernatorial, and state attorneys general contests, controlling for partisan affiliation, political ideology, perceptions of the economy, and evaluations of other salient policy issues. These findings suggest that, across the board, Democrats were penalized for their support of health care reform, and more generally provide evidence of the role of noneconomic issue voting in U.S. elections.
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U2 - 10.1177/1532673X11434141
DO - 10.1177/1532673X11434141
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84865495203
SN - 1532-673X
VL - 40
SP - 903
EP - 926
JO - American Politics Research
JF - American Politics Research
IS - 5
ER -