•Single Member Districts: House
•State-Wide: Senate (2 per state)
• Plurality
House
Senate
Congress only
Seats/districts
•90% in the House win re-election
•80% in the Senate win re-election
•Permanent Congress?
•Term limits?
Why?
Advantages of the Incumbent
1. Declare
Iowa
Jan 3
2. Primary and
caucuses
New Hampshire
Jan 10
Utah last
primary
June 26
Proportional
V
Winner take all
Presidential Primaries
Jan. 3: Iowa caucuses
Jan. 10: New Hampshire primary
Jan. 21: South Carolina primary
Jan. 31: Florida primary
Feb. 4: Nevada caucuses; Maine caucuses begin
Feb. 7: Colorado, Minnesota caucuses; Missouri primary*
Feb. 28: Arizona, Michigan primaries
March 3: Washington State caucuses
March 6: Super Tuesday — Primaries or caucuses in Alaska, Georgia, Idaho,
Massachusetts, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia.
Wyoming caucuses begin.
March 10: Kansas caucuses
March 13: Alabama, Mississippi primaries; Hawaii caucuses
March 17: Missouri caucuses
March 20: Illinois primary
March 24: Louisiana primary
April 3: District of Columbia, Maryland, Wisconsin primaries
April 24: Connecticut, Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island primaries
May 8: Indiana, North Carolina, West Virginia primaries
May 15: Nebraska, Oregon primaries
May 22: Arkansas, Kentucky primaries
May 29: Texas primary
June 5: California, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota primaries
June 26: Utah primary
*Non-binding primary; Missouri delegates chosen at March 17 caucuses.Source:
USA TODAY reporting
Front loading
I accept!
Frontloading
Winner take all
•Can be elected w/only a plurality, rather than majority
•Possibility of minority president: (1824, 1876, 1888, 2000)
•Possibility of faithless electors
•Small states proportionally overrepresented
•Small states ridiculously overrepresented if goes to House
•Inhibits development of 3rd Parties
•Direct Elections
•District system
•Proportional system
Would you prefer the Electoral College method of selecting a
president over a direct national election? Why or why not?
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Committee set up by corp,
labor union, or interest group:
Raises and spends money for
political reasons
•Must have 50 volunteer members
•Give to at least 5 federal candidates
•Register with govtfollow guidelines
Trying to stop big money from swaying elections
• Federal Elections Commission: Enforce
•Must disclose amounts over $100.00
•Matching funds program: must qualify (President only)
•Hard money limit: $1000.00 per individual
•PAC hard money limit: $5000.00
•No Foreign contributions
•Corps and UnionsPACs
Where you get your money
•Upheld limits on campaign contributions
•Court struck down limits on campaign spending
•Can spend as much on your own campaign—free speech
•Limits ok for federal subsidy (matching funds)
(Soft money and independent expenditure ads
became a problem)
•Bans soft money (unlimited) to national political parties
(committees) by corps and unions.
•Limits use of state soft money (party building activities)
•Doubles hard money limits set from FECA
•Restricted independent expenditures: 60 day & 30 day
restrictions
Struck down part of BCRA:
•30/60 day limitations
•Corporations are people
•Corps and unions may give
money directly to super pacs
Independent expenditures:
•Free speech
•30/60 day restrictions are
unconstitutional
•Unlimited donations allowed
to Super Pacs
FECA 1971-1974
Buckley
v. Valeo
BCRA:
McCain/Feingold
1976
2002
Huge increase in unlimited soft money contributions!
•Created FEC
•Disclose
contributions>$100.00
•No foreign contributions
•Individual: $1000.00
limit to candidate
• 20K to national party
committee, 5K to a PAC
•PAC’s 5K/candidate
•Matching funds
program
•Challenged it violated
1st Amend (speech)
•Upheld limits
•Free to spend as much
on own campaign
•Money is speech
Created to stop
soft money abuse
Current status:
•Banned unlimited soft
money contributions to
national parties
•Increase in
independent
expenditures/527’s
•Unions and Corps
prohibited from any soft
money donations
•Citizens United
•Doubled hard money
limits
•Super PACs
•Starting to replace
527s
•60-30 day restriction on
electioneering (Issue
advocacy ads/mention
Candiate)
If Unions and Corporations are banned from any soft money donations,
how are they able to spend money in campaigns?
Free Speech
Corporations
Do you favor campaign finance laws that restrict how much
people can give to a candidate or political party? Why or why
not?
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•Government policies
•Diversity of population
•Weakness of parties
•Pluralist theory
Labor unions
Agricultural
Business
Professional
Goal: to protest the status of its members and to convince
govt. to take action
PIRGs
Goal: to bring about good policy for society as a
whole
Goal: to convince govt. to implement policies that are
consistent with their philosophy
(Grass-roots)
Attempting to influence government:
Most effective on narrow, technical issues that are not
well publicized. Why?
How to regulate interest groups?
Provide information
Influence govt.
Testify at hearings
Help write legislation
•Fundraising Arm of Interest group:
•Raise funds for favored candidates
Growth: 6004100 Business PAC’s
Corporations: 50%
Professional associations: 15%
Ideological organizations: 25%
Labor unions: 10%
Overrepresentation of upper classes
Why?
•1796-1824:Era of good feelings
•1828-1856: 1st Dem Era: Jackson
•1860-1892: 1st Rep Era: Civil War
•1896-1928: 2nd Rep Era: East/West
•1932-1964: 2nd Dem Era: New Deal
•1968-present: Divided Govt. Era
…Office of president controlled by one party with
Congress controlled by the opposing party.
1968present
Anyone can join
No duties or dues
Emphasis on election time
Increased numbers of “Independents”
Nat’l Convention National Committee State
Committees Local Committees
•Issue oriented: Free Soil,
Prohibition
•Centered around strong
personality
•Doctrinal: apply philosophy to a
variety of issues
Can sway the election
Why we have a two party system!
•Direct Primary elections
•17th Amendment: Senators
•Initiative, referendum, and recall
•Help set national agenda
•Rise of adversarial journalism
•Journalists more liberal
•Focus on profit  People less
informed
•Personalize candidates
•Mass public pays little
attention to news
•Selective attention
•Selective perception
•Other political socialization
agents
(Weakening influence on political parties)
Focus on background of
candidate
Focus on image
Talk shows and debates
Focus on mistakes candidate
makes
Sound bites
Convention coverage
Focus on scandals