Competitive vs. Non-Competitive Districts
Start Date
August 2024
End Date
August 2024
Location
ALT 211
Abstract
Supporters of nonpartisan districting argue that nonpartisan districting will make politics less partisan by creating competitive districts that encourage legislators to move to the middle. Previous research suggests that the relationship between district makeup and legislator partisanship is complicated. I approach this topic by asking the question: “Are Ohio legislators in more marginal (competitive) districts more likely to move to the middle (moderate) than those in non-competitive districts?” By analyzing multiple measures of polarization (ACU scores, Shor-McCarty scores, and Bonica scores) we discovered...
Competitive vs. Non-Competitive Districts
ALT 211
Supporters of nonpartisan districting argue that nonpartisan districting will make politics less partisan by creating competitive districts that encourage legislators to move to the middle. Previous research suggests that the relationship between district makeup and legislator partisanship is complicated. I approach this topic by asking the question: “Are Ohio legislators in more marginal (competitive) districts more likely to move to the middle (moderate) than those in non-competitive districts?” By analyzing multiple measures of polarization (ACU scores, Shor-McCarty scores, and Bonica scores) we discovered...
