Tobacco Politics and Electoral Accountability in the United States

This paper investigates whether reputation-building strategies guide U.S. governors ’ state cigarette tax choices, and whether the federal cigarette tax influence such behavior. Using 1975-2000 data, we find evidence that governors in states with relatively important agricultural tobacco production and tobacco manufacturing, and which are densely populated by smokers, appear prone to reputation-building. Moreover, lame ducks are less prone to raise the state cigarette tax the higher the federal tax