Campaign Cash
These groups pool contributions from members and donate to favored candidates, often hoping to gain access to lawmakers.
What are political action committees (PACs)?
If no presidential candidate wins a majority of electoral votes, this chamber chooses the president.
What is the House of Representatives?
Party members gather in local meetings, debate, and pick their preferred candidate.
What is a caucus?
The term for an officeholder who is running for reelection.
What is an incumbent?
Campaign coverage that focuses on who is ahead in the polls rather than on the issues.
What is horse-race journalism?
McCain-Feingold Act (BCRA, 2002) banned this kind of unregulated "party-building" money from going to national parties.
What is soft money?
Because every state gets at least 3 electoral votes, a voter in this kind of state, such as Wyoming, carries more weight per vote than a voter in California.
What is a small-population state?
In this type of primary, only voters registered with a party may vote in that party's contest.
What is a closed primary?
Often called the biggest incumbent advantage: voters already know who you are.
What is name recognition?
The media's power to shape which issues the public considers most important.
What is agenda setting?
This independent federal agency enforces contribution limits and disclosure rules for federal campaigns.
What is the Federal Election Commission (FEC)?
A state has 9 electoral votes. Candidate A wins 46% of its vote, B wins 41%, an independent wins 13%. Under the system most states use, this is how the 9 votes are split.
What is winner-take-all? Candidate A gets all 9.
In this type of primary, independents and members of other parties may be able to participate.
What is an open primary?
Incumbents usually raise more of this from donors and PACs than the candidates running against them do.
What is campaign money (contributions)?
About three-fourths of 2012 political ads appealed to anger and fear, making this type of advertising the norm.
What is negative advertising?
This 2010 Supreme Court case held that corporations and unions may make unlimited independent expenditures, treating that spending as speech protected by this amendment.
What is Citizens United v. FEC and the First Amendment?
Truman (1948), Nixon (1968) and Clinton (1992) each won the presidency with this: the most popular votes, but less than 50%.
What is a plurality?
Voting for a Republican for president and a Democrat for Senate on the same ballot is called this
What is split-ticket voting?
Name recognition, more campaign money, and helping voters back home all add up to this two-word term for why officeholders usually win again.
What is incumbency advantage?
When people choose news sources that match their views, those sources reinforce existing biases and increase this.
What is partisan polarization?
Name three ways the federal government DOES regulate campaigns, and one campaign tactic it does NOT ban.
Regulates: disclosure of donations, limits on individual contributions, limits on soft money, the FEC.
Does not ban: negative advertising.
Give one argument that the Electoral College does not fully support democratic principles, and explain why candidates spend most of their time in a few large, competitive states.
The popular-vote winner can lose the election, and small-state votes count more. Winner-take-all makes large swing states the biggest prizes, so candidates concentrate there.
The Libertarian Party won about 1.66 million House votes in 2016 but zero seats. Name the U.S. rule that explains this, and the alternative system that would have given them seats.
What are winner-take-all (single-member) districts? The alternative is proportional representation.
Explain why PACs give more money to incumbents than to challengers, and how that money helps keep incumbents in office.
PACs want access to people likely to win and already in power. More money buys more ads and outreach, which helps incumbents win again.
These groups, made possible by court rulings in 2010, may raise and spend unlimited money as long as they don't coordinate with candidates. They helped outside groups fund about 60% of 2012 ads.
What are super PACs?