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Money and Votes: The South Rises Again
Long-standing majority control like the kind that the Democrats
lost in the 1994 midterm elections increases the power of incumbents,
attracting more political money. From 1980 to the present, the southern
congressional delegation has been the chief engine of change in the
national flow of money and votes. As solid Democratic control eroded
with the development of the modern Sunbelt South, party competition
revived. As the number of southern Republican incumbents increased,
their fundraising success increased. Fundraising success helped put
more Republicans in office. In 1994, Newt Gingrich (R-GA) used his
fundraising resources to elect a largely southern bloc of new Republican
representatives. The '94 freshman class of Republicans gave their party
the House majority, elected Gingrich Speaker of the House, and brought
Republicans a majority of political money--dramatically so in the South,
as the steep rise in the green "South" line added to the chart
illustrates.
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