Incumbent

The incumbent is the current 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 2012 United States presidential election, Barack Obama was the incumbent, because he had been the president in the previous term while the election sought to determine the president for the current term. A race without an incumbent is referred to as an open seat.

Etymology

The word "incumbent" is derived from the Latin verb incumbere, literally meaning "to lean or lay upon" with the present participle stem incumbent-, "leaning a variant of encumber, while encumber is derived from the root cumber, most appropriately defined: "To occupy obstructively or inconveniently; to block fill up with what hinders freedom of motion or action; to burden, load."

Incumbency advantage

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.

Soul Coughing

Soul Coughing was an American alternative rock band. Based in New York City, the band found modest mainstream success during the mid-to-late 1990s. Soul Coughing developed a devout fanbase and have garnered largely positive response from critics. Steve Huey in AllMusic describes the band as "one of the most unusual cult bands of the 1990s...driven by frontman Mike Doughty's stream-of-consciousness poetry, Soul Coughing's sound was a willfully idiosyncratic mix of improvisational jazz grooves, oddball samples, hip-hop, electronics, and noisy experimentalism (described by Doughty as 'deep slacker jazz')." The inventive sampling and keyboard artistry of Mark Degli Antoni undergirded the band's distinct sound.

Recording career

The band was signed within a year to Warner Bros. subsidiary Slash Records, and released three albums: Ruby Vroom (1994), Irresistible Bliss (1996), and El Oso (1998). In 1996, the band contributed to the AIDS benefit album Offbeat: A Red Hot Soundtrip produced by the Red Hot Organization. They enjoyed minor hit singles with "Circles", "Super Bon Bon", and "Screenwriter's Blues." They also had songs featured in the movies The X-Files film (Fight the Future), Batman and Robin ("The Bug"), Tommy Boy and Spawn ("A Plane Scraped Its Belly on a Sooty Yellow Moon" featuring drum and bass artist Roni Size). Their song "Super Bon Bon" was included on the soundtrack for the 2K Sports video game The Bigs 2 released in 2009 and on the soundtrack for the PlayStation game Gran Turismo 2 released in 1999. Following their breakup they released Lust in Phaze (2002), a greatest hits compilation including a few B-sides