Campaign Contributions in Local Elections

Abstract

This study helps fill a gap in both the urban politics and campaign finance literatures by examining donation patterns for municipal elec tions in Atlanta and St. Louis. These local campaigns raised substantial amounts of money, much of it from suburban and out-of-state contribu tors. Businesses were the main contributors, but development interests were not the dominant force portrayed in the urban political economy literature. Like state and federal elections, contributors seemed to pursue an "investment" strategy by targeting incumbents and citywide offices. Multivariate analyses revealed no simple relationship, however, between candidate characteristics and the amount of campaign contributions or between the amount of money a candidate raised and outcomes in city council elections.