In the era of data and metrics and models in political analysis, at least one question still remains: How do we quantify the strength of individual candidates?
Arguing over whether a candidate or incumbent is good or bad is an age-old tradition in the political media and among party operatives. Typically, candidate strength is measured by fundraising or the margin of a win or loss. But that can fail to account for the particular election cycle or the possibility that any candidate running on a particular party’s line in a particular year or state would do just as well.
But with some inspiration from baseball statistics, there is a way to quantify candidate strength and the value of an incumbent. CONT.
Nathan L. Gonzales, Roll Call