WHATS IN IT FOR ME - THE IMPACT OF CONGRESSIONAL CASEWORK ON INCUMBENT EVALUATION

Research has shown that members of the United States Congress, especia lly in the House, exploit the abundance of electorally productive perq uisites of office available to them. Yet research has not made clear t he actual impact of this exploitation on constituents. In this study, I use actual member-constituent contacts in a congressional district t o determine the effect of casework on incumbent evaluation. The result s indicate that, although casework does benefit the incumbent, its imp act is specified by partisanship. In addition, findings show that case work has a ripple effect on the formation of constituent opinion in th e district.