This Article Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 1532673X08322816v1 37/3/465    most recent References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by McGhee, E. Articles by Baldassare, M. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

The Role of Candidate Choice in the California Recall Election

Public Policy Institute of California, San Francisco, mcghee{at}ppic.org

Mark Baldassare

Public Policy Institute of California, San Francisco

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.

Key Words: 2003 California recall election • gubernatorial elections • voting • candidate evaluation • primary elections

This version was published on May 1, 2009

American Politics Research, Vol. 37, No. 3, 465-485 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1532673X08322816


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?