Traditional or modern campaigns? Spending strategies in the 2016 municipal elections

What is the effect of types of spending - traditional or modern - on votes? The purpose of this article is to determine the effect of the type of expenditure on electoral performance as a function of the number of voters. I analyze the 2016 mayor campaign throughout country in order to test two hypotheses: (H1) the greater the number of voters in the municipality, the greater the effect of modern spending on the electoral performance and (H2) the lower the number of voters in the municipality, the greater the effect of traditional spending on candidate performance. Using descriptive and multivariate statistics, the findings indicate that mayor candidates spend more on traditional spending, that the correlation between votes and both types of spending is positive in any electoral environment and that these traditional expenditures have a greater effect than modern spending regardless of number of voters, even with electoral advertising on radio and television.

Keywords:
Electoral Financing; Electoral Strategies; Municipal Elections; Local campaigns; Spending