Copyright by Brian Kearney Arbour 2007
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Copyright by Brian Kearney Arbour 2007 The Dissertation Comm ittee for Brian Kearney Arbour certifies that this is the approved versi on of the following dissertation: Résumé Politics: How Campaigns Use Background Appeals to Win Votes and Elections Committee: Daron Shaw, Supervisor Rod Hart Sharon Jarvis Brian Roberts John Sides Résumé Politics : How Campaigns Use Background Appeals to Win Votes and Elections by Brian Kearney Arbour, B.A.; M. A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doc tor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin August 2007 Dedication To Alice & Peter Arbour, and Carter Long Acknowledgements Like all large academic projects, I have greatly benefited by the support, dedication, effort, and friendship from a large number of people. They have all given generously of their time , energy, and intellect . Each has given more to me than I have to them, and I am eternally grateful for their efforts. My work in graduat e school has been generously supported by several financial sources provided by the Department of Government at the University of Texas at Austin. I twice won a McDonald Fellowship, which provided me financial support in the Summer of 2005 and for the 2006 -2007 academic year. I also received support from the Patterson Travel Fellowship, which allowed me to travel to several academic conferences. The Public Policy Institute at UT, headed by David Leal, provided funding to hire a research assistant to assist with coding advertisement. Yvette Armani was that assistant, and her excellent worked helped me greatly. Also, the experiment in Chapter 5 was part of UT’s module of the Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES). Funding for that survey was provided by the Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Participation, the College of Liberal Arts, and the Department of Government. I was aided in the process by an outstanding dissertation committee. Daron Shaw, my chair, does an outstanding job of professionalizin g his new charges, and socializing his students into the expectations and standards of our academic discipline. UT political science Ph.D. have earned more prestigious jobs over the last several years, and Dr. Shaw’s commitment to graduate students is one of the biggest reasons why. On a personal level, he has provided wise counsel and patient guidance to me both in advising me on my research agenda, and the job process. John Sides proved a great asset to my committee. His research on similar subjects provi ded me with both inspiration and v challenge —how to live up to his standard. He was a faithful reader and editor of my work, making a long series of constructive criticisms that improved this final product greatly. Brian Roberts challenged me to think more c learly about the theoretical argument of my dissertation, and how to best test the expectations I developed from that argument. His comments improved this product greatly. Sharon Jarvis provided a different perspective to this political scientist, and one that challenged (and thus strengthened) my first assumptions. Rod Hart aided my through the quality of his own scholarship, and helping me to see the big picture of my argument, a difficult task when you place so much effort into the many small components of a project. Graduate school proved to be the most enjoyable period of my life. I give great credit to David Menefee -Libey, my advisor at Pomona College and my dear friend, for only inspiring me to want to be a political scientist and an academic. Most im portantly, when I told David I wanted to go to grad school, his reaction (“You’ll be great…) provided great confidence that I had chosen the right path for me. Other professors at UT provided help and guidance in this project. I thank Ismail White, Ken Gre en, Sean Theriault, David Leal, Tasha Philpot, and Wendy Hunter for their time and effort. The biggest reason why I have enjoyed my time in graduate school so much is that it allowed me to meet a series of people who shared my interest and passion in polit ics. My friends in academia provided not only emotional support, but also an encouraging environment to discuss the political world and our effort to understand it. My thanks go to Neal Allen, Laura Barberena , Brian Brox, Eunjung Choi, Odysseas Christou, O ya Dursun, Julie George, Joe Giammo, Austin Hart, Patrick Hickey, Scott Garrison, Tao -fang Huang, Julie Lane, Allison Martens, David McCoy, Ernest McGowen, Seth McKee, Mark McKenzie, Adam Myers, Bobby Parks , Ayesha Ray , Laura Seay, Mary Slosar, Natasha Sug iyama, Jeremy Teigen, and Jongseok Woo . My vi friends outside of academic have helped to see the world beyond the ivory tower. I think Ella Kleynerma n, Doris Eichburg, Mandi Boyd , Bill Grandberg, and my oldest (and in many ways closest) friends , Damian and La urie Abreo. Two friends stand out and deserve special commendation here. Few understand me better, as an academic and a person, than Danny Hayes. His combination of intelligence, wit, and care makes his an excellent political scientist, and even better fri end. Mike Unger proved a great friend, generous with his knowledge, his time, his good judgment, his good humor, and even more generous with his cooking talents. I have been blessed with a family that has provided me comfort and guidance in equal measur es. My aunt and uncle, Charlie and Sharon Ford, have always shown me love and generosity beyond what I have been able to return to them. Ford Family Tailgating , which they run, provided me with a welcome respite from the daily grind of graduate school, as well as a way to remain connected to my family. While one of FFT’s mottos is “family isn’t who you’re related to; it’s who you choose to spend time with,” I am proud to not only be part of this definition, but also to note that “if you’re family was as coo l as this one you’d party with ‘em too.” My mother’s mother, Bereniece Ford, or Granny, passed away several years ago, but I still know how special her love is for me, and for my family. My grandmother, Ann Arbour, or Anneé, passed away earlier this year, but her joy, love, and spirit live deep within those whose lives she touched, including my parents, my aunts and uncles, and my cousins. My grandfather, Sidney Arbour Jr., has always provided a moral guide for my life through his dedication to family and c ommunity. My brother Blake has always been one of the warmest, most generous people in my life. His infectious and positive spirit is an always welcome part of my life. My sister Megan is not only my blood relation, but one of my closest friends, and is on e of the first vii people I turn to for advice and support in tough times. Her husband Wes is an outstanding addition to our family. In this dissertation, I argue that information about the past is used to make decisions about the future. In dedicating this di ssertation, I take a similar spirit. My parents, Peter and Alice Arbour, represent information from the past. They have taught me lessons about how to be generous, outgoing, caring, and committed to my values. They have supported me in hundreds of ways, ph ysically, financially, socially, and emotionally. Representing decisions about the future , I include my nephew and godson Carter Long. Carter not only provides me with hope for the possibilities in his future, but he teaches me lessons today about the tru e meaning of joy. More importantly, he is the coolest person I know, just because he is who he is. June 22, 2007 viii Résumé Politics : How Campaigns Use Background Appeals to Win Votes and Elections Brian Kearney Arbour , Ph.D. The University of Texas at Au stin, 2007 Supervisor: Daron R. Shaw The dissertation examines the use of background appeals in campaign messages. I argue that background appeals allow campaigns to meet tw o seemingly conflicting incentives in the same message —the incentive to reduce voters’ uncertainty about their candidate, and the incentive to remain ambiguous in their issue positions. Background appeals allow voters to know more about a candidate and dev elop more certainty about what he will do in office. At the same times, campaigns can achieve this goal while avoiding specific policy commitments, which, on controversial issues, might repel a significant part of the electorate. I test my argument by exa mining how campaigns plan on using candidates’ backgrounds by interviewing a sample of political consultants. The consultants I interviewed make the candidate’s background a top priority in developing a message plan for their clients. They want to show vo ters “who their candidate is” as a means of developing likeability and credibility with voters. ix As expected, campaigns use background appeals frequently, in nearly 80% of advertisements aired by US Senate campaigns in 2000 and 2002. But in these appeals, campaigns avoid specifically connecting their candidate to particular policies. Also, the appeal of ambiguity is so great that campaigns only use more specific background appeals when discussing the opponent’s background. Background appeals can have a posi tive effect on perceptions of a candidate. Using an experimental design, I vary the background of a mock candidate for Congress while holding constant his issue position. Respondents regard the candidate more favorably when they learn about his occupation than when they receive no such information. x Table of Contents Chapter 1: Background on Background ...............................