Steve and Reelection

You know who really excels at campaigning? Scalise!

According to an article by The Advocate, Steve Scalise really raised 3.3 million to defeat six innocuous challengers that raised “$5,400 between them”. Talk about overdoing.  

http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/elections/article_cd37149c-9afe-11e6-96c4-43c5f31ce88c.html

 

Let’s now discuss Congressman Scalise’s district activities in relation to Mayhew’s theories on reelection. He lists three activities that congressional representatives engage in for reelection.

    1.Advertising. Mayhew’s definition: “any effort to disseminate ones name among constituents in such a fashion as to create a favorable image but in messages having little or no issue content” (p.49). The aim is to get one’s name across in a favorable light.  Bombarding your constituents with mails? Appearing uninvited to their private events? Following them to their doorsteps? Everything is fair game here! Scalise goes beyond that. Here’s how much he spent according to a Statement of Disbursements of the House, April 1, 2016, through June 30, 2016

FRANKED MAIL ..................................................................................................................27,168.35

PERSONNEL COMPENSATION ........................................................................................208,295.07

TRAVEL ..............................................................................................................................22,534.45

RENT, COMMUNICATION, UTILITIES ..............................................................................49,309.25

PRINTING AND REPRODUCTION ....................................................................................18,485.71

OTHER SERVICES .............................................................................................................5,824.00

SUPPLIES AND MATERIALS .............................................................................................8,550.65

EQUIPMENT .......................................................................................................................1,371.24

OFFICIAL EXPENSES OF MEMBERS TOTALS: 341,538.72

OFFICE TOTALS: 341,538.72

2.Credit Claiming. Mayhew: “acting as to generate a belief in a relevant political actor (or actors) that one is personally responsible for causing the government, or some unit thereof, to do something that the actor (or actors) consider desirable”(pp. 52-53). Or simply…

In the following video, Scalise engages in credit claiming by visiting a damaged NASA building and assuring he will make it so that it will be rebuilt and the jobs will come back there in New Orleans.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjO-qoystkk

For Mayhew, the typical way of doing this is by incorporating what he calls “particularized benefits”(p.53), which involves addressing the benefit to a particular geographical constituency. Scalise’s action coincides perfectly with Mayhew’s theory.

 3.Position taking. Mayhew: “ public enunciation of a judgmental statement on anything likely to be of interest to political actors” (p.61). 

      Below is the latest post from the congressman's Facebook page:

      “A lot of us, especially in the pro-life movement, knew when Antonin Scalia passed that we would never see a Supreme Court Justice like him again. I'm glad that our new President Donald Trump has picked a worthy successor to keep Scalia's legacy alive” referring to Judge Gorsuch.

Mayhew also says: “The electoral requirement is not that he make pleasing things happen but the he make pleasing judgmental statements.” (p. 62). For a primarily republican district, this post is pleasing alright!

There is more where that came from, see https://www.facebook.com/stevescalise/

*Additional Reference:

Mayhew, David R. Congress: the electoral connection. 2nd ed. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006.