Elections, Parties and Interest
Groupsand Interest
Elections, Parties
Groups
Wilson chapters
9, 10, and 11
Let’s start
start with
Let’s
withelections
elections
• Presidential vs Congressional races:
• Presidential races are more competitive but in
either, the incumbent usually wins!!! Also
presidential races are closer in the final voting
• Smaller turnout in congressional races means
the candidate must appeal to the party voter!!
• Members of congress can do things the pres.
Can’t such as claiming direct help for the
people of the state such as job programs
• Members of congress can claim they are not
part of the “Washington mess”
Coattails??
• Lots of incumbants get reelected to
Congress for the last three reasons on the
previous slide
• It used to be that the president of your
party would almost automatically mean
you’d get elected if he was popular – but
not so much any more
How to be the President
• First you have to be “mentioned” in the media
• It takes a lot of WORK!!!
• Come from various backgrounds including
governors, senators, members of congress or
war hero’s
• You need money, lots of money and a lot comes
from PACs. Individuals can only give $2000
while a PAC can give $5000. To get matching
funds you must get donations from 20 different
states…confusing??
• It gets worse…
More Mr. or Mrs. President
• You need a huge organization of fundraisers,
lawyers, secretaries, advertising, accountants
and volunteers!!! You also need advisors and
someone to write papers and speeches
• What about campaign strategy:
• Tone: positive or negative
• Theme: a simple appealing idea to repeat
• Timing: focus on primaries or the convention
• Target: who to aim at, those who change vote
perhaps or certain groups like farmers…
How about Congress????
• First, how many to elect?? It depends on the
size of the state, districts and their shapes
• Congress decided in 1911 to set the House at
435 seats and in 1929 to reapportion every 10
years…
• So some states lose seats while others gain
• District boundaries are always
redrawn to “cheat” the system –
called malapportionment
and gerrymandering
Okay, now let’s get elected
• First you need signatures and then win the
“primary”
• Once elected you quickly learn to take care of
your constituents by ensuring you do what they
want
• Congressional members are trustees and
delegates
• Delegates want to be reelected more than
anything – and will do whatever it takes
• Trustees tend to look at bigger picture that has
fewer implications for their home district
Qualifications for all the jobs
• House of Representatives
25 years old – citizen for 7 years – live in state
• Senator
30 years old – citizen for 9 years – live in state
• President
35 years old – born in USA
Primary vs general campaigns
• Primary elections choose a parties candidates –
sort of like the “playoffs”
• General elections pick the winners who will
actually hold office – the “championship”
• Very different group of voters and helpers
• You must “rally the troops” for each primary –
reaching for the extremes of your party then
often back off in the general election
• People who get involved in primaries are the
“hard core” political activists!!!
Campaign issues
•Position issues: opposing viewpoints usually
along partisan lines (security, defense, abortion,
gay marriage)
• Valence issues: viewpoints in which the public
is united and rival candidates follow similar
positions hoping to gain popular support - as if
they were on the same side as the public (social
security, welfare)
Role of the media
• Name recognition from TV spots and even
news (low cost and “reliable”)
• Debates usually only advantage to challenger performance is huge (Reagan, Kennedy)
• Careful not to “slip up” so rely on stock
speeches and proven themes for applause
• Internet great for direct mail campaigns
• So worried about reelection that campaigning
and government are linked together candidates need media consultants to succeed
Show me the $$$$$$$$
• Presidential primaries - public and private $$
with federal matching funds for donations over
$250 per individual
• Presidential general elections all public money
totaling $74 million in 2004
• Congressional elections are mostly private $$
• Up to $2000 per individual and $5000 for PACs
Rules about $$$$$$
•
Watergate and illegal donations in 1972
created 1974 Campaign Reform law and FEC
• Set limit then of $1000 per individual
• Guidelines for PACs
• Guidelines for public funding of elections
• Loopholes
1 Soft money is unlimited as long as it’s given to
a political party
2 PACs can spend as much as they want as
long as it’s not coordinated with a candidate
More recent changes
•
Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act of
2000 created 3 big changes!!!
1. Banned soft money to national parties from
corporations and unions
2. Raised individual limit to $2000
3. Sharply restricted independent expenditures groups can’t use their own money in an ad
referring to a specific candidate 30 days
before a primary and 60 days before a general
election (positive or negative ads)
Court challenges and 527s
• The previous act was immediately challenged in
court as a violation of free speech but the
Supreme Court upheld the new laws
• Both parties have 527 organizations that can
spend “soft money” like before and can spend
their money on politics as long as they don’t
lobby directly for a specific person or coordinate
with a candidate
• 527s raised and spent $333 million in 2004
Money and winning
•
•
1.
2.
3.
•
Presidential candidates all get federal money
During peacetime three key factors:
Party affiliation
Economy (called pocketbook voting)
Candidates character
can’t forget VP candidates role,
religion, and the media
I WIN, I WIN
Who decides who wins???
• Party affiliation? Republicans vote more than
Democrats and are more “wed” to their party
• More independents vote Republican
• Issues (economy) or strong principles (abortion)
judging the incumbents' performance, and
timing of elections (midterm or not)
• The campaign – negative or positive, core
values and character, themes over detailed
issues (single issue voters vote in blocks)
• A winning coalition – loyalty to a party, specific
ethnic or religious voters, volume of voters
A little election history
•
1.
2.
3.
4.
•
•
•
Broad election trends:
1876-1896 – very competitive among parties
1896-1932 – Republicans dominant
1932-1952 – Democrats dominant
1952-now – changed hands frequently
Public policy has remained pretty much the
same and pace of change has been moderate
thanks to the Constitution!!!
Elections are important but tend to be voter
judgments of the president and congress
Political parties have less sway over voters
Hey, let’s party…
• A party is a group that seeks to put a “label” on
a candidate for purposes of identification
• Political parties also provide a structured
organization and a set of leaders for both
candidates and the public!!
• Actually, parties have become weaker over the
last few decades – more independent voters
and ticket splitting
Parties here and there
• In Europe, political parties are very strong with
very loyal voters
• In the US, with a decentralized government,
parties don’t have the same power –
• They are closely watched and regulated by
state and federal laws and…
• Candidates are chosen in primaries, NOT by
the party leadership.
• Just imagine if the Republicans or Democrats
TOLD us who we’d get to vote for!!
I think NOT!!!
The Rise and Fall of the Party
• Founding Father’s didn’t like them – factions!!!
• Once reason they were created was the need
to reach more voters in the early 1800s
• Also the beginning of national party conventions
allowing more local control (Jacksonian Period)
Civil War
• Dominance of the Republicans due to Civil War
• Even afterwards, the country divided itself into
sections – south, north, west
• By late 1800s most states were dominated by
one party with factions within each party
(progressive “mugwumps” for example)
• Some changes by 1900 – voter registration, no
business/party alliances, civil service reform
and progressive ideas like initiative
and referendums
Party changes
• Party realignment – times of sharp shift in
opinions of those who support a certain party
• Most obvious – Civil War, economic issues of
late 1800s, Depression
• Parties have declined a lot between 1960-1980
• Split-ticket voting has increased dramatically –
people NOT voting along party lines only
• One reason for split ticket is that candidates are
listed by office, not party affiliation like in late
1800s
Party role and Conventions
• Party structure has changed in last 25
• National Conventions part of this change – read
this section carefully!! (pages 207-213)
• Shift of power in country – Democrats to north
and west, Republicans to south and southwest
• Dems seem to favor big states (Cal, NY) while
Reps seem to favor “loyal” states (Mi, Fl)
• Dems represent leftist wing of the liberal middle
class while Reps represent traditional middle
class, more conservative
The two party system
• Why just two main parties???
• First of all, rare among nations these days
• In US, the two are very evenly balanced, but
not locally!!!
• Winner take all system of Electoral College one
reason for only two parties
• Only two broad coalitions work
• State laws make getting another party on the
ballot very difficult
Third parties and their role
• “Ideological” parties – comprehensive, radical
view, most enduring (Libertarians, Socialists)
• “One-issue” parties – address only one item
and avoid the others (Free Soil, Prohibition)
• “Economic Protest” parties – regional,
economic only (Populist, Greenback)
• “Factional” parties – split from a major party,
usually over a presidential candidate (Bull
Moose)
• Surprisingly not had more over social issues
like war, civil rights, environment (Green)
Almost done with partying…
• First of all, third parties have little chance of
winning, but they can screw things up for the
major parties by taking votes (Ross Perot,
Ralph Nadar)
• It is thought that third parties develop the ideas
that major parties adopt and…
• that they have had a great influence on public
policy
Ross Perot
Ralph Nadar
Last party slide (thank goodness!!)
• Parties play a role in nominating a president
• Delegates come from the party – sometimes
from the extremes of the party and candidates
often play to the ideological extremes missing
the “rank and file” members of the party
• And delegates pick those candidates that
appeal to them, often to the detriment of the
election (Dems have won more congressional
seats since 1968 but done poorly in presidential
elections as their choices are often out of touch
with the average voter!!!) (superdelegates…know them)
Interest Groups
• A lot of differences among Americans has led
the proliferation of interest groups
• Long history of them, see text pages 265-268
• Huge variety of issues including abolition,
prohibition, gun rights, farm issues, religious
associations, environmental groups, political
reform, balanced budget, businesses, unions,
even older Americans…
• Remember – PACs and interest groups are
interchangeable
Definition
• An interest group is defined as: any
organization that seeks to influence public
policy through LOBBYING
• Two types – institutional and membership
• Institutional - deals with individuals or
organizations representing other organizations
such as: business firms and unions
• Membership – deals with social, business,
veteran, charitable, religious issues
• Americans join groups more than Europeans
and this may be due to a sense of civic duty
Why join an interest group?
• Feel a part of the political process, pleasure,
companionship (NAACP, League of Women
Voters, PTO, American Legion) (called Solidarity)
• Material incentives - money, things, services
(farm organizations, AARP)
• Common goals – passion about an issue,
common ideology, public interest, protection
(ACLU, NRA)
Social movement and funding
•
Interest groups have long been involved in a
variety of social movements such as:
abolition, the environment, feminism, and
unions
• Funding for interest groups comes from 3
sources:
1. Foundation grants
2. Federal grants and contracts – not for
lobbying but for projects
3. Direct mail – but expensive
What else do they do?
• Well, interest groups can be biased…
• People of wealth more likely to join them – and
influence them…
• Business/professional groups have more $ than
those representing minorities or consumers
• How about the info they provide?
• Interest groups are there to provide information
to members as well as legislators
• They target (or lobby) those undecided
legislators or other government officials
Money and PACs
• Money is the least effective way of influencing
politicians
• Still, incumbents get the most PAC money
• Labor PACs give to Democrats
• Business PACs tend to split their money
• PAC money may influence politics in different
ways like access to a candidate or committee
action – also may become more influential on
certain issues (called “client politics”)
The “Revolving Door”
• Here’s an interesting phenomenon??
Many people leave public office, get hired
by a PAC and then return to Washington to
lobby. It can happen over and over again
(Donald Rumsfeld for example). This can
lead to a conflict of interest and an unfair
manipulation of government agencies
(FDA)
Last slide (YEAH!!!)
• PACs have certain protections including the
First Amendment
• Some regulations define “lobbying” and
control the money flow
• Tax codes modified to stop some “non-profits”
from lobbying or risk losing their status
• And, finally, new campaign finance laws limit
the amount of $$ a person can give to a PAC
You made it – next comes Congress but only after SPRING BREAK!!!!!