Mr Hollings's team point to the obvious logic: mid-term elections are normally cloaked with apathy, but if voters are energised to turn out to support Jim Hodges, then by party association they will surely be tempted to vote for Fritz Hollings too.
That same logic helps explain the long-term staying power of companies like General Electric and United Technologies, both of which are major military contractors despite being focused mainly in commercial businesses.
For his test, the study used the three-year period from November 1 of the year after the previous election through October 31 of election year based on the logic that society tends to judge a President by change during the bulk of the presidential term, while assigning credit or blame for the start of the first year to his predecessor.