Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hello, my name is David Kellogg, reporting from Western Washington University.
Money plays a very important role in politics and this is even more true in the election of 1998.
Campaign fundraising has climbed to a new high this year.
Leading to the largest campaign contributions and campaign spending in history.
One group of Western Washington University students
concentrated on three hypotheses that deal with money and politics.
The first hypothesis of money was,
the candidate who spends the greatest amount of money is most likely to win.
Using Washington State's congressional districts to test this hypothesis,
it was found that in the past elections of 1992 and 1994, this showed true in nearly all cases.
This conclusion was tested in 1992 and 1994 by looking at how much a candidate spent in the election,
and how many votes they received.
Using this same method, predictions of this election results have been made.
They are:
In district number one, Rick White, Republican, over Jay Inslee, Democrat.
In district number two, Jack Metcalf, Republican, over Margarethe Cammermeyer, Democrat.
And in district number three, Brian Baird, Democrat, over Donald M. Benton, Republican.
In district number five, George Nethercutt, Republican, over Bradley C. Lyons, Democrat.
In district number six, Norm Dicks, Democrat, over Robert I. Lawrence, Republican.
In district number eight, Jennifer Dunn, Republican, over Heidi Benedict, Democrat.
And in district number nine, Adam Smith, Democrat, over Ron Taber, Republican.
And in districts numbers four and seven, they only have one candidate running so we will not mention their names.
And finally, in the Senate race, it is predicted Patty Murray, Democrat, over Linda Smith, Republican.
Now the second hypothesis stated that, incumbents get more and bigger campaign contributions than challengers.
Again, using Washington State in 1998 to study this hypothesis,
it showed that, in every race, the incumbent raised more money than the challenger.
The reason this is the result is believed because contributors want to give money to a winner.
For the final hypothesis, it said that the Republican Party gets more and bigger campaign contributions
than the Democratic Party.
This straightforward hypothesis proved to be correct in 1998.
The Republicans in Washington, state this year, in the last trends and receipts, received over 5 million dollars.
Compared to the Democratic total of a little over 3 million dollars.
The reason of this is believed to be because the Republicans are the majority in the House,
and the Senate.
Thank you for your time, please be sure to vote.
Coming from Western Washington University.