1 Candidate Quality and Competition in Mexico

Abstract: Despite numerous obstacles to the development of a personal vote, individual legislative candidates can affect their electoral performance. Previous electoral office experience, in particular as a mayor, positively increases a candidate’s chance of winning a seat in the Federal Chamber of Deputies during a presidential election year: 2006. The paper also tests one of the key pathways legislative candidates can affect elections—partisan voter mobilization. While controlling for a number of factors, voters who are contacted by a party are more likely to vote for that party (or not vote for the opposition). Overall, the paper finds that candidate quality plays an important role in Mexico’s party-centric system. 2 In the past decade, Mexico’s Congress has emerged as a new institutional center of power in the country’s politics. Long relegated to rubber-stamping presidential policy initiatives and steadfastly avoiding oversight responsibilities (Ugalde 2000), the Mexican Federal Congress has turned into a central political actor in national politics. In contrast to the decades of inaction preceding 1997, the Mexican Federal Chamber of Deputies now routinely initiates legislation, significantly amends presidential proposals, and investigates actions by the executive.