Incumbent

"Open seat" redirects here. For the tennis tournament, see Open SEAT. For the ecclesiastical office, see Incumbent (ecclesiastical). This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2008) Look up incumbent in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. The incumbent, in politics, is the existing holder of a political office. This term is usually used in reference to elections, in which races can often be defined as being between an incumbent and non-incumbent(s). For example, in the 2004 United States presidential election, George W. Bush was the incumbent, because he was the president in the current term while the election sought to determine the president for the following term. In open-seat races (that is, where no incumbent is running), the term "incumbent" is sometimes used to refer to the nominee of the party currently holding the office. Contents 1 Etymology 2 In politics 3 In business 4 See also 5 Notes 6 References // Etymology The word "incumbent" is derived from the Latin verb incumbere, literally meaning "to lean or lie upon" with the present participle stem incumbent-, "leaning a variant of encumber,1 while encumber is derived from the root cumber,2 most appropriately defined: "4. To occupy obstructively or inconveniently; to block fill up with what hinders freedom of motion or action; to burden, load."3 In politics In general, incumbents have structural advantages over challengers during elections. The timing of elections may be determined by the incumbent instead of a set schedule. For most political offices, the incumbent often has more name recognition due to their previous work in the office. Incumbents also have easier access to campaign finance, as well as government resources (such as the franking privilege) that can be indirectly used to boost a campaign. An election (especially for a legislature) in which no incumbent is running is often called an open seat; because of the lack of incumbency advantage, these are often amongst the most hotly-contested races in any election. In the United States, incumbents traditionally win their party's nomination to run for office. Unseating an incumbent president, senator or other figure during a primary election is very difficult; see incumbency advantage. In particular, barring major scandal or controversy, about 94% of congressional incumbents win re-election to their seatscitation needed, though this may not reflect the fact that some incumbents, faced with unfriendly re-election prospects, may resign in order to make way for their party to nominate a candidate more likely to win. However, shifts in congressional districts due to reapportionment or other longer-term factors may make it more or less likely for an incumbent to win re-election over time. For example, a Democratic incumbent in historically conservative rural Texas would have less chance of winning than a Democratic incumbent in historically liberal New York City, because Texas has shifted away from the Democratic Party in terms of voting while New York City has shifted toward the same party (see also Congressional stagnation in the United States). However, there exist scenarios in which the incumbency factor itself leads to the downfall of the incumbent. Popularly known as the anti-incumbency factor, situations of this kind occur when the incumbent has proven himself not worthy of office during his tenure and the challenger demonstrates this fact to the voters. An anti-incumbency factor can also be responsible for bringing down incumbents who have been in office for many successive terms in spite of performance indicators, simply because the voters are convinced by the challenger of a need for change. When newcomers vie to fill an open office, voters tend to compare and contrast the candidates' qualifications, issues positions and personal characteristics in a relatively straightforward way. Elections featuring an incumbent, on the other hand, are as Guy Molyneux puts it, "fundamentally a referendum on the incumbent."4 Voters will first grapple with the record of the incumbent. Only if they decide to "fire" the incumbent do they begin to evaluate whether the challenger is an acceptable alternative. At the same time, if the challenger is determined to be wholly unacceptable, voters might reluctantly vote for the incumbent. In business In business the term "incumbent" is used for the largest company in a certain industry, for instance the traditional phone company in telecommunications, typically called the "incumbent operator". In a sales process, such as public tender, incumbent may also refer to the vendor that has the largest existing commercial relationship with the issuer of the tender. In large corporations it is the incumbent who is the holder of an office, or one that occupies a particular position. See also Lists of office-holders List of current heads of state and government Outgoing president Notes ^ OED (1989), p. 834 ^ OED (1989), p. 218 ^ OED (1989), p. 124 ^ Guy Molyneux, The Big Five-Oh, The American Prospect, 1 October 2004. References Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. 1989. Print. Politics portal