Coverage and Campaign Coffers in 2012: Enduring Strategies and Changes in Presidential Primaries

Abstract

Mutz’s seminal work on the effect of media coverage on campaign contributions is now more than 20 years old. Using a combination of Federal Election Commission contribution data, aggregated polling data, and analysis of media content from news broadcasts, Tobit regression analysis is used to determine which factors led small and large contributors to give money to candidates in the 2012 Republican presidential primary. The results largely confirm Mutz’s findings, showing the highly strategic behavior of both small and large contributors, though large contributors seem to be much more effective in giving money where it is likely to make a difference.