Fund-Raising Coalitions in Mayoral Campaigns

Abstract

Electoral coalitions have two parts: the voter coalition and the fund-raising coalition. The voter coalition consists of the individuals and groups that support a candidate through mobilization and voting, whereas the fund-raising coalition supports a candidate through campaign donations. The authors explore the less-studied role of the fund-raising coalition by examining data on the campaigns of Mayors Harold Washington and Richard M. Daley in Chicago. The results point to significant differences in the fund-raising coalitions behind the two candidates and help to explain the distinctiveness of their regimes.

Fundraising Coalitions in Open Seat Mayoral Elections

“…As Krebs and Pelissero (2001) note, successful electoral coalitions have two parts: a voting coalition and a fundraising coalition. Most of the literature on mayoral elections has focused on the former, specifically the importance of race in assembling a successful coalition.…”

Urban Interests and Campaign Contributions: Evidence from Los Angeles

“…First, campaign contributions are a critical form of political participation, and, therefore, should not be overlooked in the study of local interests. Second, by studying who contributes, one is able to understand more fully the range of interests involved in the local political process and thus develop a deeper understanding of the city's governing coalition (Krebs & Pelissero, 2001). Third, by examining who contributes one is able to test existing theories of urban politics, which typically assume a prominent status for development interests (Peterson, 1981).…”

Revitalizing Urban Research

“…That which exists is devoted largely to analyses of elections in a handful of the nation's largest cities (Pelissero, Krebs, and Jenkins 2000;Kaufmann 2004), with special emphasis on the role of ethnicity and especially race in local elections (Browning, Marshall, andTabb 1984, 2003;Sonenshein 1993). Occasionally, we catch an undeveloped glimpse of the possible significance of other "groups" that might (or might not) reflect some of the cultural groupings suggested here-as in the participation of religious and nonprofit donors to Harold Washington's mayoral campaigns (Krebs and Pelissero 2001). But taken as a whole, the existing research on voting in local elections would seem to suggest that election outcomes in U.S. cities are mostly driven by race/ ethnicity on one hand and the campaign contributions of business interests on the other hand (Krebs 2005), except perhaps in the special case of San Francisco where the political empowerment of gays is important (DeLeon 1992;Bailey 1999).…”