Blog #4
The Electoral Connection
- In the book Congress The Electoral Connection by: David R. Mayhew. In this book Mayhew proposes the theory that people in congress are single minded seekers of re-election.
- This is achieved through advertising, credit claiming, and position taking.
Advertising:
Congressmen Rick Nolan is not a stranger to the advertising game. In the 2016 house race between him and Stewart Mills, Rick Nolan spent over 2.8 million dollars on his campaign. This money gets spent on things like the commercial advertising seen in the video above. This amount of spending would support Mayhew's theory because Rick Nolan spent a lot of money in order to be re-election. In fact he spent far more than the average house seat would spend. Based on the chart below the average seat spent about 1.6 million dollars. that means congressman Nolan spent over 1 million dollars above the average house seat on re-election.
Campaign Cmte and Leadership PAC Fundraising, 2015 - 2016
| Raised: |  $3,059,107 | |
| Spent: | $2,896,970 | |
| Cash on Hand: | $188,801 | |
| Debts: | $0 | |
| Last Report: | Saturday, December 31, 2016 | |
Position Taking:
Rick Nolan has often taken to social media like Facebook and you tube to publicly take positions for all of his constituents to see. Below I have two examples of positions Rick Nolan has publicly taken over Facebook just in the last month.
America needs an immediate, massive new public investment in the aging, crumbling, failing transportation infrastructure that threatens our public safety. This overhaul is critical to our economy and our national security, and to the creation of some 13 million new good-paying construction jobs across Minnesota and the Nation.
The above is an example of Rick Nolan taking a position on the American infrastructure. In this post he calls improvements to transportation infrastructure in the United States. He provides a link to a website that gives information about the status of deficient bridges across the United States. For example in Minnehaha county there are 56 deficient bridges. By also adds to his position on "Jobs, Jobs, Jobs" by fixing the infrastructure problems across america we could provide 13 million new good-paying construction jobs
Minnesotans receive only $0.54 in return for every dollar they pay in federal income tax. I've made it my mission in Congress to bring more federal dollars back to Minnesota’s Eighth District to rebuild our crumbling transportation infrastructure, support our public schools and create good paying jobs.
More info: http://read.bi/2gjzY8b
More info: http://read.bi/2gjzY8b
The above is another example of position taking. In this case Us Rep Rick Nolan is taking a position to increase the amount of federal dollars being brought back to Minnesota. This would also be pandering to the wants and needs of his constituents, by making it his mission to bring more money back to Minnesota. Mayhew would see this as a direct action to gain favor from voters in an effort to be re-elected. This is because his constituents would want the money he is taking about getting them.
Credit Claiming
In the video below you will see Rick Nolan credit claiming. In the video Rick Nolan talks about the bill he wrote. He wrote the Buy American bill which places high tariffs on foreign steel imports, that will give local steel mills time to bounce back from "illegal steel dumping from china". This credit claiming gives the people in his district he is working hard for there best interests by writing up bills that are in there best interest. Mayhew on the other hand would claim that this is just an attempt to gather more voters from the steel workers in his district.
About a month ago many of Rick Nolan's agendas in the steel industry were being accomplished. This was seen when the President Trump annouced support for american made pipelines. With this Nolan reintroduced the American Pipelines and Saftey Act.
