THE LOCALIZATION OF U.S. HOUSE ELECTIONS AND THE 1989 INDIANA 4TH DISTRICT SPECIAL ELECTION

Abstract. The nationalization thesis, as it pertains to Congressional elections, argues that they are decided by national factors rather than factors in the individual districts. This paper critiques the nationalization thesis as applied to U.S. House elections. The election examined is the 1989 4th district special election contended by Democrat Jill Long and Re publican Dan Heath. The campaign and election results, rather than reinforcing the na tionalization of Congressional elections, demonstrate instead the localization of Congressional elections. Over the past 30 years, a major tenet of political science research has been that poli tics in the U.S. have become "nationalized " (Agnew, 1987). The nationalization thesis argues that politics have come to center upon national issues, with political alignments "crystallizing around national social cleavages to produce national patterns of political mobilization and partisanship " (Agnew, 1988, 307). Thus, the nationalization thesis ar gues that politics and political behavior in the U.S. are focused upon the national level rather than the local level. One major piece of evidence usually presented to support this argument is the nationalization of U.S. Congressional elections. The nationalizatio