The distribution of campaign spending benefits across groups

Coleman and Manna (2000) argue that campaign spending boosts the quality of democracy by increasing citizen knowledge about and affect toward candidat es. If politically and socially advantaged groups disproportionately captur e these knowledge benefits, however, then campaign spending merely perpetua tes political inequality. Examining challenger and incumbent spending in 19 96, I estimate the distribution of campaign spending benefits and find that these benefits are distributed broadly across advantaged and disadvantaged groups. In this regard, campaign spending is a democratizing force.