Chapter 10: Campaigns and elections

What is the maximum amount of money an individual may contribute to any one candidate in any single election?

$2,300

Since the passage of the 2002 Campaign Finance law, individuals may donate a maximum of ____ to any single candidate; a political action committee may donate ____ to each candidate.

$2,300; $5,000

Runoff election

If a candidate does not win a majority in the general election, some states hold a run-off between the two highest vote-getters. It is a 'second round' election in which voters choose between the top two candidates from the first round.

Closed Primary

Only voters registered for the party that holds the primary may vote

During the earliest years of the United States, who nominated the candidates for president?

Political machine bosses controlled the entire nominating process.

Expenditure limits are placed on presidential candidates who accept funding from which of the following sources?

Presidential Election Campaign Fund

____ voting occurs when voting is based on the imagined future performance of a candidate.

Prospective

Open Primary

Voters are not required to declare party affiliation

Political Action Committees (PACs) are organizations established

by corporations, labor unions, or interest groups to channel the contributions of their members into political campaigns.

In most states, how do independent and third-party candidates qualify for the general election ballot?

by obtaining thousands of petition signatures

Plurality vote

candidate with the greatest number of votes wins

Some people favor the use of caucuses to select party nominees because

caucus participants tend to be more knowledgeable.

Why was the electoral college created?

citizens were not trusted to make a good decision

An election in which voters can participate in the nomination of candidates, but only of the party in which they are enrolled, is a(n)

closed primary

Midterm elections

congressional elections that do not coincide with a presidential election; also called off-year elections.

Polling data is NOT used by contemporary campaigns to

decide which political party the candidate should join

Party activists who are elected to vote at a party's national convention are called

delegates

Campaigns

efforts by candidates and their supporters to win support from donors, activists, and voters in quest for political office

Primary elections

elections held to select a party's candidate for the general election.

The federal courts have established ____ as a critical factor in establishing the boundaries of legislative districts.

equal populations

State legislators routinely seek to influence electoral outcomes by manipulating the organization of electoral districts. This strategy is called

gerrymandering

Romney was the front-runner for the Republican nomination because

he had a superior organization and financial base

In 2003, Californians voted out governor Gray Davis. This election was unusual because

he lost in a rare recall effort.

Congressional elections

held every 2 years on the first Tuesday in November

Presidential elections

held every 4 years on the first Tuesday in November

A(n) ____ is a candidate running for re-election to a position that he or she already holds

incumbent

In most congressional elections, ____ outspend ____.

incumbents, challengers

The Presidential Election Campaign Fund is made up of contributions from

individual taxpayers

The right of candidates to spend their own money on running for office

is protected by the First Amendment right of free speech

Republican governors and legislatures enacted laws that required prospective voters to present valid, government-issued photo identification cards because

less-educated and minority voters tend to vote Democratic and were less likely to produce valid ID at the polls and thus would be barred from voting

What are the three types of gerrymandering?

packing cracking and stacking

Primary election

parties choose candidates for who will run in the general election

Of the various factors that influence voters' decisions at the polls, which of the following is consistently the most important?

partisan loyalty

The biggest influence on an individual's vote choice is

partisan loyalty

What are the three main factors for how voters choose candidates?

partisanship, issues and policy concerns and candidate characteristics.

If the winner of an election is whoever receives the most votes, regardless of the percentage of votes received, the candidate has been running under a ____ system

plurality

Delegates

political activists selected to vote at a party's national convention.

The electoral college is

presidential electors from each state who cast ballots for president and vice president.

In order for a political party to select a candidate to run in the general election, it holds a

primary election

The electoral college was designed to

produce a nonpartisan president.

Packing

ramming many voters of one party into a district to dilute their votes in other districts

The _____ was promoted by Progressive reformers at the turn of the twentieth century to allow voters to have a more direct role in governing.

referendum

In the U.S. federal system, the responsibility for organizing elections

rests largely with state and local governments.

Most states in the 2012 election

seemed to be solidly in either the Democratic or Republican camp

Straight-ticket voting

selecting candidates from the same political party for all offices on the ballot.

Members of the House of Representatives are selected by

single-member district

Which of the following campaigns is less likely to depend on issues and policy proposals and more on work designed to make the candidate more visible than his or her challenger?

state legislative campaigns

Partisanship is most likely to affect voting in which of the following elections?

state legislative elections

The most notable differences between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney in the first presidential debate were in terms of

style; Romney seemed alert and aggressive while Obama seemed disengaged and listless

Cracking

tearing up dense pockets of party voters to dilute their votes in that district

According to the authors, which economic tool is the best predictor of presidential outcomes?

the Consumer Confidence Index (CCI)

The result of voters casting their ballot for president or governor and automatically voting for the remainder of the party's ticket is called

the coattail effect

Who is the incumbent?

the current officeholder, running for re-election

Referendum

the practice of referring a proposed law passed by a legislature to the vote of the electorate for approval or rejection.

Electoral college

the presidential electors from each state who meet after the popular election to cast ballots for president and vice president.

Prospective voting

voting based on the imagined future performance of a candidate or political party.

Retrospective voting

voting based on the past performance of a candidate or political party.

Prospective voting occurs when

voting is based on the on the imagined future performance of a candidate.

According to the authors, who benefits from the American system of private funding of campaigns?

wealthy interest groups

Money and Politics

1. Campaign funds in the United States are provided by small, direct-mail contributions, large gifts, PACs, political parties, 527s, candidates' personal resources, and public funding. 2. Campaign finance is regulated by the Federal Elections Campaign Act of 1971. Following the 1996 and 2000 elections, the role of soft money was scrutinized. The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, a bipartisan attempt to restrict soft money contributions and issue advocacy, became law in 2002. 3. The role played by private money in American politics affects the relative power of social groups. As a result, less affluent groups have considerably less power in the political system.

Elections in America

1. In democratic systems, elections can be used to replace current officeholders as well as being institutions of legitimation. 2. Elections also help to promote government accountability and are a source of protection for groups in society. 3. In the American federal system, the responsibility for organizing elections rests largely with state and local governments. 4. Three types of elections are held in the United States: primary elections, general elections, and runoff elections. Americans occasionally also participate in a fourth voting process, the referendum, but the referendum is not actually an election. Eighteen states also have legal provisions for recall elections. The recall is an electoral device that allows voters to remove governors and other state officials from office prior to the expiration of their terms. 5. Most general elections in the United States use the plurality system, a type of electoral system in which, to win a seat in the parliament or other representative body, a candidate need only receive the most votes in the election, not necessarily a majority of votes cast. . State legislators routinely seek to influence electoral outcomes by manipulating the organization of electoral districts. . Prior to the 1890s, voters cast ballots according to political parties. The advent of the neutral ballot allowed voters to choose individual candidates rather than a political party as a whole. 8. Americans do not vote directly for presidential candidates. Rather, they choose electors who are pledged to support a party's presidential candidate.

The 2012 Election

1. In the Republican primary, Mitt Romney's superior organization and financial base carried him to the nomination, despite challenges from Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich who portrayed themselves as more conservative than Romney. 2. Romney's strength and Obama's struggles in the first presidential debate provided Romney with momentum. However, President Obama won reelection by putting together a coalition of working-class voters, women, and minority constituents and winning all but one battleground state. In Congress, Democrats retained control of the Senate and Republicans retained control of the House.

Thinking Critically about the Electoral Process

1. Most Americans are wary of the high cost of campaigns and the apparently sinister role of campaign contributions in the political process. Although reform of spending practices may appear to advance the goal of political equality, it might do so at the expense of liberty.

Presidential Elections

1. Presidential candidates secure a party's nomination by running in state party primaries and caucuses. 2. Nominations of presidential candidates were first made in caucuses of a party's members of Congress. This system was replaced in the 1830s by nominating conventions, which were designed to be a more democratic, deliberative method of nominating candidates. 3. Contemporary conventions merely ratify a party's presidential and vice-presidential nominations, although conventions still draft the party platform and adopt rules governing the party and its future conventions. 4. In capital-intensive campaigns, the main technique is to use the broadcast media to present the electorate with themes and issues that will induce them to support one candidate over another. 5. In recent years, the role of the parties during the general campaign has been transformed by the introduction of high-tech campaign techniques, including polls, use of broadcast media, phone banks, direct mail, professional public relations, and the Internet.

Election Campaigns

1. Surveys of voter opinion, often called public opinion polls, provide the basic information that candidates and their staffs use to craft campaign strategies—that is, to select issues, to assess their own strengths and weaknesses as well as those of the opposition, to check voter response to the campaign, and to measure the degree to which various constituent groups may respond to campaign appeals. 2. The first step in campaigning involves the organization of supporters to help the candidate raise funds and create public name recognition. 3. The next steps of campaigning involve hiring experts—campaign managers, media consultants, pollsters, and others—to aid in developing issues and a message and communicating them to the public. 4. Because most of the time a major-party nomination is necessary for electoral success, candidates must seek a party's nomination in primary elections.

How Voters Decide

1. Three factors influence voters' decisions at the polls: partisan loyalty, issues, and candidate characteristics. 2. The impact of issues and policy preferences on electoral choice is diminished if competing candidates do not differ substantially or do not focus their campaigns on policy matters. 3. Partisan loyalty predisposes voters in favor of their party's candidates and against those of the opposing party. 4. Candidates' attributes and personality characteristics always influence voters' decisions. 5. The salience of these three bases of electoral choice varies from contest to contest and from voter to voter.

Except in rare occasions, boundaries for congressional and state legislative districts in the United States are redrawn by the states every ____ years.

10

Recall election

18 states, citizens vote to remove elected official from office

Popular referenda

24 states, citizens petition to place issues on the ballot for a vote

According to post-election polls, _____ of Americans had face-to-face conversations with family and friends about whether they should vote for Obama or Romney; _______ had these conversations via Facebook or Twitter.

48 percent; 30 percent

Nonprofit groups that also engage in issue advocacy and are allowed to spend up to half of its revenue for political purposes are called

501c(4) committees

Which of the following is a reason for the low U.S. voter registration rate?

Citizens are responsible for registering themselves; the government does not do it for them.

Which party has reserved slots at the national convention for elected superdelegates?

Democrats

What was the impact of the 2002 Campaign Finance Reform law?

It reduced the role of parties in financing campaigns.

All states but ____ and____ allocate all electors to the popular vote winner

Maine and Nebraska

If no presidential candidate wins a majority of votes in the Electoral College, what happens?

The names of the top three candidates are submitted to the House, where each state would be able to cast one vote.

What has been a common way for interest groups, corporations, and political parties to aid a candidate while avoiding campaign finance laws?

Work with 527 committees and 501c(4)s to run campaign ads and promote issues.

Spot (advertisement)

a 15, 30, or 60-second television campaign commercial that permits a candidate's message to be delivered to a target audience.

Incumbent

a candidate running for reelection to a position that he or she already holds.

According to the authors, President Obama's margin of victory in the 2012 election was built on

a coalition of women, working-class voters and minority voters in several key battleground states

Superdelegate

a convention delegate position, in Democratic conventions, reserved for party officials.

Majority-minority district

a gerrymandered voting district that improves the chances of minority candidates by making selected minority groups the majority within the district.

Proportional representation

a multiple-member district system that allows each political party representation in proportion to its percentage of the total vote.

Caucus (political)

a normally closed political party business meeting of citizens or law makers to select candidates elect officers, plan strategy, or make decisions regarding legislative matters.

Platform

a party document, written at a national convention, that contains party philosophy, principles, and positions on issues.

Primary elections are held to select

a political party's candidates for the general election.

Open primary

a primary election in which the voter can wait until the day of the primary to choose which party to enroll in to select candidates for the general election.

Closed primary

a primary election in which voters can participate in the nomination of candidates, but only of the party in which they are enrolled for a period of time prior to primary day.

Political action committee (PAC)

a private group that raises and distributes funds for use in election campaigns.

Recall

a procedure to allow voters to remove state officials from office before their terms expire by circulating petitions to call a vote.

Ballot initiative

a proposed law or policy change that is placed on the ballot by citizens or interest groups for a popular vote.

General election

a regularly scheduled election involving most districts in the nation or state, in which voters select officeholders. In the United States, general elections for national office and most state and local offices are held on the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November in even-numbered years. (every four years for presidential elections). They draw the most voters and determines who gets to hold office

Majority system

a type of electoral system in which, to win a seat in the parliament or other representative body, a candidate must receive a majority of all the votes cast in the relevant district.

Plurality system

a type of electoral system in which, to win a seat in the parliament or other representative body, a candidate need only receive the most votes in the election, not necessarily a majority of votes cast.

Legislative referenda

all 50 states legislature refers to policy to the public for a popular vote

Campaign

an effort by political candidates and their supporters to win the backing of donors, political activists, and voters in their quest for political office.

What is a closed primary?

an election in which voters can participate in the nomination of candidates, but only of the party in which they are enrolled for a period of time prior to the Election Day

Town hall meeting

an informal public meeting in which candidates meet with ordinary citizens. Allows candidates to deliver messages without the presence of journalists or commentators.

Gerrymandering

apportionment of voters in districts in such a way as to give unfair advantage to one racial or ethnic group or political party.

When and where do electors vote?

at their respective state capitals the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December

Stacking

merging two districts of the same party to force incumbents to run against each other

When a congressional election is held that does not coincide with a presidential election, it is called a

midterm election.

Modern political campaigns at the national level are fueled by enormous amounts of

money

How big of a role does money play in American politics compared to other countries?

much more

In the case of Buckley v Valeo, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that

no limits can be placed on candidates' expenditure of their own funds, since such spending is considered free speech.

501c(4) committees

nonprofit groups that also engage in issue advocacy. Under Section 501c(4) of the federal tax code such a group may spend up to half its revenue for political purposes.

527 committees

nonprofit independent groups that receive and disburse funds to influence the nomination, election, or defeat of candidates. Named after Section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code, which defines and provides tax-exempt status for nonprofit advocacy groups.

Joe walks into his voting station, and the election judge asks him which party's ballot he would like to vote on today. Joe is in a(n)

open primary state

Redistricting

the process of redrawing election, congressional, and state legislative districts and redistributing legislative representatives. This happens every ten years, after the census, to reflect shifts in population or in response to legal challenges in existing districts.

Coattail effect

the result of voters casting their ballot for president or governor and 'automatically' voting for the remainder of the party's ticket.

527s and 501C(4)s are groups that play a significant role in American politics because

they spent more than 1 billion in the 2008 campaign

Majority vote

to win, the candidates must receive at least half of the votes plus one

While Abraham Lincoln's 1860 presidential campaign spent $100,000, it also relied heavily on

volunteers