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Congressional Service
What are the benefits of being a Congressional incumbent verses a challenger?
According to Marjorie Hershey (1984) Congressional incumbents have certain innate advantages over their challengers. The experience of winning elections gives an incumbent a set of developed strategies that have been successful at least once. Despite the fact that an incumbent may not fully understand the underlying reasons behind the victory, the approach has worked. The incumbent knows that the whole package has brought voter approval and in future electoral contests the candidate may use this experience to their advantage. The challenger simply does not have this reservoir of experience.
Additionally, incumbents have the advantage of more time to become familiar with their constituency, "since they receive campaign related stimuli between elections as well as during campaigns" (Hershey, p. 104). Incumbents are in constant contact with voters as well as powerful groups; however the challenger usually only has limited contact prior to the campaign. The incumbent has time...
Often it is not only the lack of money or name recognition that puts so many challengers at a disadvantage in campaigns; it is their relative inexperience with the difficult learning situation that campaigns provide. Challengers start out with a learning deficit compared with most incumbents and it is a deficit from which most challengers never recover.
However, challengers may be victorious. Incumbency can lead to stagnation, and existing beliefs can become so fixed that the incumbent fails to comprehend a changing political environment. An innovative challenger who senses shifts in the district's mood, population, and policy preferences may take advantage of this set of circumstances.
Question Two: What are the roles of the leaders of the two houses of Congress?
Members of Congress hold leadership positions within their particular chamber. Their responsibilities include leading negotiations within the party to formulate party positions on legislative issues, mediating…
References
Hershey, M.R. (1984). Running for office: The political education of campaigners. Chatham, NJ: Chatham House.
"Members of Congress questions and answers." (2011). The Center on Congress at Indiana University. Retrieved December 17, 2012, from http://congress.indiana.edu/members-congress-questions-and-answers
Peterson, R.E. (2012, November 9). Roles and duties of a member of congress: Brief overview. Congressional Research Service, RL33686. Retrieved December 17, 2012, from http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL33686.pdf
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