The elements of candidate reputation: The effect of record and credibility on optimal spatial location

We build a model of two-candidate elections in which voters judge candidates on the basis of how well their announced campaign positions correspond with their records. Given different records, the candidates will adopt different campaign positions. Two types of reputational advantage are analyzed: proximity of the candidate's record to the median voter's ideal point, and the range of campaign positions that a candidate may adopt and still retain some credibility with the voters.An earlier version of this paper was delivered at the annual meetings of the Public Choice Society, Tucson, Arizona, 17 March 1990. The authors thank William Dougan and Brian Roberts for some helpful comments in the formative stages of this paper, and express our gratitude to Jay Dow for providing admirable research assistance. We also wish to thank Henry Chappell and William Keech for their discussant comments at the Public Choice meetings.