Chapter 10: Campaigns and Elections
Approximately ________ is needed for a candidate to have a reasonable chance of winning a seat in the House of Representatives.
$1 million
A citizen can currently give no more than ________ per candidate for federal office per election in a given two-year election cycle.
$2,700
By using donor lists or magazine subscription lists, candidates are able to engage in
direct-mail solicitations.
The ________ is the last example of indirect voting in national elections
electoral college
The advent of the Australian ballot in the early twentieth century was significant because it
enabled voters to make their choices on the basis of the individual candidate rather than the collective merits of a party's candidates.
The last election in which a major party presidential candidate accepted public funds was
2008
National elections are held in the United States on the first Tuesday of November ________ year(s).
every four
The winner of the electoral college vote has NOT won the popular vote ________ time(s) in American history.
4
A majority system, which is used on a limited basis in the United States, requires that a candidate must win ________ to win an election.
50 percent plus one of all votes cast
"Dark money" comes from
501(c)(4)s.
Currently, there are ________ states that have the legislative referendum and ________ states that provide for the initiative process.
50; 24
When Hillary Clinton won the plurality of votes in California during the 2016 election, and California had 53 representatives in the House of Representatives, how many electoral votes from California did she win?
55
When candidates for office sponsor hearings, undertake inspection tours of disaster areas, or meet with foreign dignitaries, the form of publicity they receive is called
free media.
When states vie for influence by holding their nominating processes earlier, it is called
front loading.
The average U.S. House district currently has roughly ________ people.
700,000
Which of the following statements about campaign spending in Senate elections is true?
Incumbents generally spend more money than challengers in Senate campaigns.
In McCutcheon et al. v. FEC (2014), the Supreme Court ruled that the
government could not restrict independent expenditures by corporations or unions to political campaigns.
Which of the following political officers is/are subject to recall elections?
governors and other state officials
The Supreme Court's decision in Buckley v. Valeo (1976) was significant because it
introduced the idea that money counts as "speech" under the First Amendment.
The right of candidates to spend their own money on running for office
is protected absolutely by the First Amendment according to the Supreme Court.
In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, election campaigns tended to be
labor intensive
When a politician forms a political action committee to donate campaign funds to his or her political allies, it is referred to as a
leadership PAC.
Which of the following is a difference between Democratic and Republican primaries?
The Democratic Party requires that state presidential primaries allocate delegates on the basis of proportional representation, while the Republican Party does not.
Which of the following statements about primary elections is MOST accurate?
The United States is one of the few nations in the world to hold primary elections.
"Packing" occurs when
legislative districts are redrawn in a way that concentrates members of a particular party in as few districts as possible, thereby limiting the overall number of seats that party might win.
"Cracking" occurs when
legislative districts are redrawn in a way that disperses members of a particular party across multiple districts, thereby reducing that party's chances of winning any seats.
In addition to nominating a presidential candidate, national party conventions are important because they
make rules concerning delegate selection for future primaries and draft the party's platform.
Public funding for presidential primary campaigns
matches, on a dollar-for-dollar basis, all contributions of $250 or less, up to a total of $48.7 million in 2016.
________ currently use(s) the so-called top-two primary system.
Two states (California and Washington)
Which of the following statements about campaign finance is MOST accurate?
Unlike the United States, most democratic countries provide public financing for their elections.
What did the Supreme Court mean by "one person, one vote"?
Within a state, electoral districts must have roughly equal populations.
A runoff election is MOST likely to occur in which kind of electoral system?
a majority system
Partisan loyalty is likely to be highest in the election of
a state legislator.
Under the National Popular Vote plan
a state's electoral college votes would go to the candidate who won the national popular vote, not the candidate with a plurality of votes in that specific state.
Superdelegates
are currently used in the Democratic Party presidential primary only.
Presidential candidates who accept federal funding for their general election campaigns
are subject to strict expenditure limits.
In order to win the presidency, a candidate must win
at least 270 electoral votes.
A proposed law or policy change that is placed on the ballot by citizens or interest groups for a popular vote is called a
ballot initiative.
Money contributed directly to a political party to be used for voter registration or party building is called
soft money.
The Consumer Confidence Index is based on
surveys asking voters how optimistic they are about the future of the economy.
Most European nations utilize a
system of proportional representation
A major factor in John F. Kennedy's 1960 presidential victory over Richard Nixon was
that Kennedy had a much stronger performance than Nixon during televised debates
"King Caucus" refers to
the use of each party's congressional caucus to nominate presidential candidates during the early nineteenth century.
When does public-opinion polling take place during a campaign?
throughout the entire campaign
State legislative districts
vary from a few thousand people in some states to nearly a million in California.
Under current federal campaign finance rules, a national political party committee
may make unlimited "independent expenditures" advocating support for its own presidential candidate as long as these expenditures are not coordinated with the candidate's own campaign.
A 501(c)(4)
may not spend more than half its revenue for political purposes.
A(n) ________ occurs when a voter can wait until the day of the primary to choose which party to enroll in to select candidates for the general election.
open primary
Local election campaigns tend to be ________, while statewide elections tend to be ________.
organizationally driven and labor intensive; media driven and capital intensive
Which three types of factors influence the decisions of voters at the polls?
partisan loyalty, issues, and the characteristics of candidates
Generally speaking, a recall effort begins with a
petition campaign.
An election where the winner is the person who receives the most votes, regardless of the percentage of votes received, is called a ________ system.
plurality
The ________ is the MOST common electoral system used in general elections in the United States.
plurality system
Private groups that raise and distribute funds for election campaigns are called
political action committees.
Retail politics refers to
political campaigns that operate at the local level and use face-to-face communication to generate interest and momentum among voters.
Before the 1890s, who was responsible for printing election ballots?
political parties
In order for a political party to select a candidate to run in the general election, it holds a(n)
primary election.
A referendum is the
process by which a party selects its candidates for the general election.
For the presidential primaries, most but not all state parties use what type of election?
proportional representation
Smaller and weaker parties are MOST likely to have electoral success under the ________ system of elections.
proportional representation
Political scientists call voters' choices that focus on future behavior ________ voting, while those based on past performances are called ________ voting.
prospective; retrospective
Which of the following is the best example of direct democracy in the United States?
referendum
Primary elections were introduced by
reformers at the start of the 1900s, who hoped to weaken the power of party leaders.
The Help Americans Vote Act of 2003
required state governments to introduce computerized voting systems.
A "second-round" election in which voters choose between the top two candidates from the first round is called a
runoff election.
The idea behind micro-targeting is to
send different campaign messages to different demographic groups of voters.
In Baker v. Carr (1962), the Supreme Court ruled that
...
In order to qualify for public funding in a presidential primary, a candidate must
...
Currently, ________ states have agreed to the compact specified by the National Popular Vote plan.
10
The boundaries of legislative districts in the United States are to be redrawn every ________ years.
10
The principle of "one person, one vote" was established by the Supreme Court in the
1960s.
During the 1880s, as many as ________ people worked on political campaigns.
2.5 million
Which of the following politicians was successfully recalled from office?
California governor Gray Davis (2003)
In ________, the Supreme Court ruled that the government could not restrict independent expenditures by corporations or unions in support of candidates.
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010)
During the earliest years of the United States, who nominated the candidates for president?
Each party's congressional caucus controlled nominations.
The original gerrymander is attributed to
Elbridge Gerry
________ involves purposefully drawing district boundaries to unfairly advantage one group or party.
Gerrymandering
The first caucus in the presidential primary campaign is held in ________, while the first primary election in the presidential primary campaign is held in ________.
Iowa; New Hampshire
In ________, the Supreme Court determined that purposefully drawing districts where the majority of voters were members of a single minority group, in order to ensure minority representation, was unlawful.
Shaw v. Reno (1993)
________ are sums of money spent to influence an election, but the donating organization is not allowed to coordinate with a candidate's official campaign.
Soft money donations
Super PACs were made possible in part by the
Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.
The majority of political action committees represent
business and professional groups.
A ________ is an effort by political candidates and their staffs to win backing and support by voters in the quest for political office.
campaign
Early presidential primaries and caucuses are more important because they
can help a candidate secure media attention and financial support.
Both 527 committees and 501(c)(4)s
can spend unlimited amounts on political advocacy as long as their efforts are not coordinated with those of any candidate's campaign.
In the so-called top-two primary system
candidates from all parties run against one another and the top two face each other in the general election.
A(n) ________ occurs when a voter must be registered with a party prior to voting in that party's election.
closed primary
Plurality and majority systems tend to
decrease the number of political parties.
Though traditional party conventions were ________, contemporary party conventions are ________.
deliberative assemblies to determine nominations; simple ratifications of nominations that have already been determined
During midterm elections, voters are selecting
members of Congress.
Research shows that
negative ads tend to focus on important policy differences, while positive ads tend to focus on candidates' personal characteristics.
If a citizen votes for a Republican for president and a Democrat for senator, he or she has engaged in
split-ticket voting
The primary responsibility for conducting public elections rests with
state and local governments.
When an American voter supports only one party's candidates, he or she is said to be voting a ________ ticket.
straight
Party elites who are not bound to the voting results in their state primaries and can vote as they wish are called
superdelegates.
Who is an incumbent?
the current officeholder, running for reelection
When the Consumer Confidence Index is greater than 100 prior to an election, Americans tend to
vote for the incumbent party's presidential candidate
Politicians attempt to "balance the ticket" with members of many important groups because
voters tend to prefer candidates who are closer to themselves in terms of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, geography, and social background.
If a registered Democratic voter was opposed to abortion and rejected the Democratic Party's pro-choice platform, abortion would be a ________ issue for the voter.
wedge
A candidate who received 20 percent of the overall vote could
win the election only if the election were held in a plurality system.