Journal Articles

The Role of Candidate Choice in the California Recall Election

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Many have argued that the reelection and later recall of Governor Gray Davis in California serves as a perfect example of how primaries draw politics to the extremes by nominating candidates too liberal or conservative for the general electorate. Davis defeated a conservative Republican opponent in his reelection campaign, only to lose in the recall just one year later when there were no primaries to prevent a moderate Republican from running. We test this notion with survey data from both elections. We find that the choice of candidates was important to votes in each election, but evaluations of Davis were far more significant and largely determined the outcome. We conclude with implications for the role of primaries in American politics generally.

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Series Title

American Politics Research

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Publisher

United States : sage., 2009

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Language

English

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Edition

Volume 37, Number 3, May 2009. pp. 465-485

Subject(s)

gubernatorial elections
candidate evaluation
The Role of Candidate Choice

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