This article provides the first step toward a fuller understanding of candidates' contributions and loans to their own campaigns by developing a set of measures of this activity and describing candidates' investments during the 1984 election cycle. Few incumbents make these investments, and those who do are usually able to repay these loans during the campaign. Most competitive nonincumbents do make investments, with the median amount of approximately $20,000 for competitive House nonincumbents who do invest. While this figure is not large, the real importance of candidates' investments may be their value as seed money, which provides vital start-up funds.
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