Public Party Funding and Intraparty Competition: Clean Elections in Maine and Arizona
Michael J. Brogan, Jonathan Mendilow

Abstract
This paper inquires whether public campaign funding increases electoral volatility at the intraparty level. It introduces the Intra-party Volatility Index, a new technique for estimating electoral volatility and competition in primary elections, and applies it to the primary elections conducted in Arizona and Maine from 1990 to 2010. Results suggest that Clean Elections funding encouraged non-incumbent candidates to run in their party’s primaries, and contributed to large swings in intra-party voting within districts controlled by either the Republican or Democratic parties. Such an intensification of intra-party competition was coupled in turn with decrease in intra-party cohesion.

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