Swing States Get More Goodies

While preparing for my public choice field exam this Saturday I came an interesting tidbit in my notes regarding presidential policy. It should come as no surprise that presidents craft policy to try to win votes. Did you know it goes so far as to give swing states preferential treatment during times of crisis in attempts to keep the marginal vote in the Electoral College? Here are two examples from my notes:

1) Abraham Lincoln's policies during the Civil War included a much stronger likelihood of throwing troops from supportive states into battle than those from marginal states.

2) During the New Deal legislation money went to fund programs in marginal states, not in states with the greatest need. (A different story than what I learned in history class.)

I guess one of the lessons here is if you want to get better treatment from the government, make sure you always keep a politician guessing about how you're going to vote. You'll get a lot more goodies that way.

Incidentally, this is one reason why states prefer for their electoral votes to get treated as a large block rather than being split proportionally. It gives them far more political influence during presidential campaigns. (Colorado almost made itself politically irrelevant by undoing the winner-take all outcome in 2004.)