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Argentina. Clearly, the potential amount of resources to do politics is bigger in a
governorship, but so are the numbers of possible contenders. In as much, on the scale of
elected officials, the efforts, money and salience of a gubernatorial race are significantly
greater than in a municipal race. As an extension, another substantive difference exists:
the median voter. The set of potential targets of campaigns, discourses, pork and
symbolic activities is clearly smaller and (presumably) less diverse in a mayoral race. On
the contrary, a gubernatorial contest do not only involve dealing with general province-
level topics, but also probably with different "home styles" within the province. In sum,
as a logical implication, a politician running for mayor is likely to face considerable :
different opportunities and pitfalls than a colleague pursuing a governorship. Following ⅛
a similar logic, a gubernatorial background may also shape current legislators' behavior
differently from that of former municipal executives.
If career ambition and political backgrounds affect legislative behavior, and
dissimilar subnational positions also make a difference, legislative activity should differ
depending on legislators' previous position. While current legislators with a mayoral
background should care more about their past locally bounded voters; those
representatives that have been provincial executives should be more interested in
targeting the province as a whole. These defensive actions should be reflected in the
kinds of legislation they submit during their tenure. However, the expected support to
the theoretical expectations is likely to differ between categories. In other words, the
profiles of the typical politicians occupying a seat after a governorship and after a
mayoral position usually differ in the Argentine case.
Under what conditions should a mayor seek a legislative seat? As mentioned
several earlier, the rationale behind a former mayor joining a legislative list might be