Crime in Our Streets: How Candidates Identify Problems and Define Issues

This chapter examines the messaging strategies of candidates by focusing on when and why candidates talk about criminal justice issues. In centering criminal justice policy, the chapter presents the first of two policy case studies designed to unpack the legislative implications of nationalization. The present case study explores how discussions around rising crime rates, a common refrain among conservative officeholders and national media, rarely aligned with local conditions. Using candidate-level advertising data, I analyze the connection between local factors, such as violent crime rates, and the decision to highlight criminal justice in an ad. Even when speaking to local audiences, candidates are motivated far more by partisan positioning and national political frames than local conditions. In addition to these messaging strategies, the chapter explores how candidate rhetoric both reflects and predicts legislative behavior. Using data on bill introductions, I find that candidates who talk more about law and order issues during an election are more likely to author legislation on the topic. In the end, the case study demonstrates how the nationalization of policy encourages officeholders to identify issues based on national political frames, and that there are real legislative implications to this attention.