Voters punish members of Congress who misbehave: only two-thirds of representatives and barely two-fifths of senators survive scandals

摘要

Scandals have become a recurring feature of modern political life, but do they inevitably spelludelectoral doom for senators and representatives? Looking at data from 171 scandals fromud1990 to 2010, Scott Basinger finds that scandal-tainted members of Congress are moreudthan twice as likely to be defeated in general elections as the scandal-free. Scandals alsoudmean much narrower election victories for incumbents when they do win elections. Overall,udonly two-thirds of representatives and barely two-fifths of senators survive their scandalsudbecause of election losses, retirement or resignation.