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Over the last several years many scholars have sought to counter claims that campaigns
have limited – or minimal – effects. The minimal effects thesis, however, pertains primarily to
presidential campaigns. Certainly, one is more likely to see campaign effects in lower-profile
elections where it is less likely that the campaigns balance one another out. And much research
has identified campaign effects in sub-presidential elections. Spending in Congressional
elections has effects on both vote choice (Jacobson, 1990; Abramowitz, 1988) and turnout
(Caldeira, Patterson, and Markko, 1985). In gubernatorial elections, campaign spending has
been shown to have an effect on turnout (Patterson and Caldeira, 1983). And in state legislative
elections – where the candidates and campaigns are much less visible – there is a strong
connection between campaign spending and electoral success, especially in larger states and
states with professional legislatures (Cassie and Breaux, 1998).
But recent efforts have also turned up campaign effects in presidential campaigns.
Studies using aggregate analysis have shown that campaigns can persuade voters and thus affect
aggregate vote totals and public opinion. Television advertising and candidate appearances have
an impact on aggregate vote totals (Shaw, 1999b). In addition, national conventions and debates
(Holbrook, 1996) as well as other aspects of an election campaign such as campaign messages,
events, and mistakes (Shaw, 1999a) have an effect on public opinion. Furthermore, recent
studies have shown that presidential campaigns have an impact through agenda-setting, priming,
and framing effects (Mendelberg, 1997; Mutz, Sniderman, and Brody, 1996; Petrocik, 1996).
Despite these impressive findings, there is still a great deal of room for improvement in
the description and prediction of campaign effects. One area of oversight in this literature is the
failure to adequately integrate the efforts of political parties into the study of campaign effects.
Campaigns are no longer merely the money and service providers as they are often portrayed by
Convention