In Search of Lincoln's Perfect List

Abstract

A key element in winning elections, according to many practitioners, is successfully identifying citizens for targeted campaign communications, and a central tactic for implementing that strategy is through personal-contact campaigning. This article first integrates academic and practitioner perspectives into theoretical arguments about targeted campaigning. Then, using the 1956 to 1998 National Election Studies, the analysis shows that voter registration and age have become increasingly important as criteria for campaign contacts, that contacting rates among urban, sub-urban, and rural areas have equalized, and that campaigns continue to target party regulars, people predisposed to vote, and those who are more socially and economically integrated into their communities. The analysis also compares major party grassroots strategies and their changes over time. The results suggest that recent patterns in personal-contact campaigning may no longer exacerbate American participatory inequalities to the degree found in earlier periods.