Fiscal Consistency and Federal District Spending in Congressional Elections

Theory: Conventional wisdom holds that legislators win votes by acquiring federal spending for constituents. Scholars have struggled, however, to support this belief empirically. This paper links federal district spending and pork with an explanation based on consistency: electoral performance hinges on legislators' fiscal consistency, i.e., whether their votes on federal spending are consistent with their credit claiming for pork flowing to their districts. Hypotheses: In districts receiving substantial pork, fiscally liberal incumbents perform better electorally than fiscal conservatives. In low-pork districts fiscal conservatives perform better. Methods: These hypotheses are tested using aggregate-level data from the 198490 United States House elections and individual-level data from the 1988 Senate Election Study. Results: The hypotheses are supported on the aggregate and individual levels. Fiscally consistent legislators receive more votes than fiscally inconsistent legislators.