HOW REELECTION CONSTITUENCIES MATTER - EVIDENCE FROM POLITICAL-ACTIONCOMMITTEES CONTRIBUTIONS AND CONGRESSIONAL VOTING

This article shows that voting in the U.S. Congress and contribution s trategies of political action committees (PACs) are guided not by the median voter model but by a model that emphasizes characteristics of l egislators' unobserved reelection constituencies. It also identifies w hich legislators of a given party have conservative or liberal reelect ion constituencies. The proposed model indicates that the importance o f party affiliation for congressional voting differs for legislators w ith identical party affiliation. Differences are caused by dissimilar characteristics of their reelection constituencies. The proposed model implies distinct patterns of giving by corporate and labor PACs to le gislators of the same party with dissimilar reelection constituencies. The evidence is consistent with the proposed model and is consistent with the objective of PACs to influence congressional decisions and as semble a voting majority in Congress. For example, labor PACs were fou nd to contribute heavily to those Democratic legislators with conserva tive reelection constituencies.