FRESH LOOK
Campaigning and Voting in Municipal Elections), a collection of 13 articles organized and edited by political
scientists Antonio Lavareda and Helcimara Telles, changes the level of analysis in an important and very useful
way. Lavareda, president of MCI Estra-tégia, and Telles, a professor at
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, focus
on the 2008 municipal elections in
the capital cities of key states. The
chapters analyze campaigns and the
bases of electoral choice in the cities
of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Salvador, Fortaleza, Curitiba,
Recife, Porto Alegre, Manaus, Belém,
Goiânia, and Florianópolis.
Typically, three or four parties capture most of the municipal vote, and
smaller parties ally with parties that
at least are not ideologically distant.
In many states, particularly those in
which the capital city does not sit on
a rich resource base in relation to the
state as a whole, state governors control vital resources and play central
roles in municipal elections.
by Jairo Pimental Jr. of Universidade
de São Paulo and Claudio Luis de Ca-margo Penteado of the Universidade
Federal do ABC. The authors provide
a nuanced account of how Gilberto
Kassab, the mayoral candidate of
the Democratas party, won re-elec-tion with skillfully constructed alliances that gave him more time on
the HGPE and “greater visibility and
space for his campaign.” The result:
voter opinion of his administration
changed from negative to positive.
The introduction, written by Antonio Lavareda, establishes the
economic background to the 2008
elections. During the four-year period
leading up to the vote, including the
election year, growth was high and
inflation remained low. The importance of public satisfaction with Lula’s administration was not lost on
local politicians. While few voters
actually cast votes based on a local
candidate’s ties to Lula, his popularity negated campaign attacks on the
national administration. Candidates
who could link themselves to the
president tried to nationalize their
local elections by focusing on economic growth and the expansion of
social benefits through the family stipend program; candidates of the opposition tried to “municipalize” the
contests by focusing on local issues.
Partisanship also matters organizationally. Brazil restricts private spending on political campaigns, but in the
final months before an election, candidates are entitled to airtime during
the Free Period of Electoral Advertising (Horário Gratuito de Propaganda
Eleitoral—HGPE). The number of
daily minutes each candidate receives
is a function of the legislative seats
held by the parties supporting that
candidate. Not surprisingly, major
parties form coalitions with smaller
parties to augment their airtime.
The importance of the HGPE is doc-
umented in the chapter on São Paulo
In Rio de Janeiro, Fábio Vasconcellos
and Marcus Figueiredo of the Universi-
dade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro look at
how the vote was age- and class-linked.
Partido Verde candidate Fernando Ga-
beira won the votes of richer, younger
and more educated people. His op-
ponent, Eduardo Paes of the Partido
do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro
(PMDB), did well in the first round
among voters who held a positive view
of outgoing Mayor César Maia (then
a member of the Democratas party),
Lavareda also stresses political con-
tinuity. Thanks to a constitutional
amendment in 1997 allowing execu-
tive officeholders to run for a second
term, mayoral reelection rates have
climbed steadily, from 58 percent in
all municipalities in 2000 and 2004
to 67 percent in 2008. In municipali-
ties that are state capitals, reelection
rates in 2010 reached 95 percent.
While partisanship may arguably
be less of a factor in national contests,
Lavareda argues, it matters at the local level. Party fragmentation, which
appears very high in the national legislature, is more manageable locally.
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