Essay #11

a) There are two patterns displayed in the graph shown, One pattern is that the house of Representatives reelection rate is constantly higher than the Senates. The other pattern is that the House of Representatives and the Senate lines on the graph are opposites. In 1981, while the reelection rates in the House of Representatives were up and around the 90 percentile, the reelection rates in the Senate increased to half of that rate, around the 55 percentile. 
b) One of the advantages of incumbency is wealth, it takes a lot of money be a candidate. It takes a lot of money to run and so it is common to have a wealthy person running. They usually have background experience and it makes it easier for voters to choose them rather than someone who is running for the first time.
c) A consequence to incumbency advantage is that since they continue to be reelected there is a higher chance of corruption in Congress. There are scandals in the news all of the time and we are constantly informed of every detail that goes on. If the incumbents were never reelected, there wouldn't be a chance for the congress members to get bored and start acting out. They would be focused on doing the best at their job with the little time that they have left in office.

(2001_2) the graph above shows reelection rates for incumbents in the House and Senate. From this information and your knowledge of of the US politics, perform the following 
tasks. (Fig 12.1)
a) identify two patterns displayed in the graph
b) identify 2 factors that contribute to incumbency advantage. Explain how each factor contributes to incumbency advantage.
c) Discuss one consequence of incumbency advantage for the US political process