Retirement Slump

	Retirement Slump Retirement slump refers to the average falloff in the party's vote when the incumbent retires. A positive value of the sophomore surge represents an incumbency advantage. The retirement slump should be positive for an incumbency advantage to exist. Sophomore surge is the average vote gain for freshman winners in election 1 who run again in election 2. Retirement slump is the average vote loss for the parties whose candidates won election 1 and did not run in election 2.http://gking.harvard.edu/files/inc.pdf When a Sophomore surge A sophomore surge (sometimes referred to in the United Kingdom as first-term incumbency bonus) is a term used in the political science of the United States Congress that refers to an increase in votes that congressional candidates (candidates for t ... and a Retirement slump combine, it is what is called a slurge. References {{reflist Elections ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu]
	Sophomore Surge A sophomore surge (sometimes referred to in the United Kingdom as first-term incumbency bonus) is a term used in the political science of the United States Congress that refers to an increase in votes that congressional candidates (candidates for the House of Representatives) usually receive when running for their first re-election. The phrase has been adopted in Australia by psephologist Malcolm Mackerras who is well known for his electoral pendulums. History This phenomenon first started in the 1960s. As of 1998, freshman candidates running for a second term now get eight to ten percent more votes than when they were elected for their first term. (Over ninety percent of all incumbent House members are reelected.) Senate members also currently benefit from a sophomore surge, though it is to a lesser degree. The reason for the sophomore surge is attributed to the fact that congressmen have figured out how to run personal campaigns rather than party campaigns. They make use of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu]
	Slurge In the political science of the United States Congress, slurge is the arithmetic mean of retirement slump and sophomore surge A sophomore surge (sometimes referred to in the United Kingdom as first-term incumbency bonus) is a term used in the political science of the United States Congress that refers to an increase in votes that congressional candidates (candidates for t .... The term was coined by John Alford and David R. Brady in a 1988 academic paper. The slurge is one of the more accurate means of measuring incumbency advantage in congressional elections. If the "retirement slump" is the difference in percentage of the vote share between a retiring incumbent and a new candidate, and the "sophomore surge" is the difference in percentage between a new candidate's first campaign and second campaign as an incumbent, then the slurge, being an average of the two, indicates a higher incumbency advantage when higher. Example of usage: "The slurge was too high to miss, yet the Ameri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu]