Longman
PoliticalScienceInteractive
Magleby & Light
Government by the People
Chapter 9
Campaigns and Elections
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Elections: The Rules of the Game
Elections are held at
fixed intervals that
cannot be changed
by the party in
power
Terms are fixed and,
for some offices,
staggered
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Term Limits
Twenty-second Amendment
No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than
twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as
President, for more than two years of a term to which some other
person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the
President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any
person holding the office of President when this Article was
proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who
may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during
the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding
the office of President or acting as President during the remainder
of such term.
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Effects of a Winner-Takes-All,
Single-Member District System
•Wasted-vote syndrome
•Reinforcement of moderate and centrist
candidates
•Difficult for minor parties to get elected
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Proportional Representation
An election system in which each party
running receives the proportion of
legislative seats corresponding to its
proportion of the vote
Benefits:
– More accurately reveals the division of voter
preferences
– Gives those who do not vote with the plurality some
influence as a result of their vote
Problems:
– May make it harder to have a clear winner
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The Electoral College
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The Electoral College
Why it exists:
– The framers did not trust the choice of president to a direct
vote of the people
How it works:
– Each state legislature is free to determine how to select its
electors
– Each party nominates a slate of electors, usually longtime
party workers
– In 48 states, candidates who win a plurality of the popular
vote secure all of that state’s electoral votes
– In NB and ME, electoral votes are allocated to the winner of
each congressional district plus two electoral votes for the
winner of the state as a whole
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The Electoral College
If no candidate gets a majority of the
electoral votes, the House chooses among
the top three candidates
– Occurred in 1800 and 1824
Makes it possible for a presidential
candidate to win the popular vote but
lose the electoral vote
– Occurred in 1824, 1876, 1888, and 2000
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Battleground States
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Running for Congress
Partisan gerrymandering
Safe seats
Coattail effect
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Safe and Competitive House
Seats, 2000-2008
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Seats Lost by the President’s Party
in Midterm Elections
Incumbents
have a strong
advantage when
seeking
reelection
–Name recognition
–Campaign
contributions
–Resources of office
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The House of Representatives
Mounting a primary campaign
– Raising money
– Building a personal organization
Campaigning for the general
election
– Candidate appeal
– National tide
– Name recognition
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U.S. House Incumbents Reelected
1960-2008
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The Senate
Costs more than House races, but
cost varies by state
More likely than House seats to be
seriously contested
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Rising Campaign Costs in
Congressional General Elections
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Running For President
Stage 1: The Nomination
Campaigning begins well before any
declaration of candidacy, as
candidates try to:
– Line up supporters to win caucuses or
primaries in key states
– Raise money for their nomination effort
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Running For President
Stage 1: The Nomination
Primaries
– Beauty contest
– Actual voting
– Systems
• Proportional representation
• Winner takes all
• Delegate selection without a commitment to a candidate
• Delegate selection and separate presidential poll
Caucuses and conventions
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The Presidential Campaign:
Typical Campaign Organization
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Campaign Strategies
Selecting a theme
Negative Campaigning
Using focus groups and polling
News management
Paid advertising
Seeking free airtime
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Running For President
Stage 2: The National Party Convention
National Party
Convention
A national meeting of
delegates elected in
primaries, caucuses, or state
conventions who assemble
once every four years to
nominate candidates for
president and vice
president, ratify the party
platform, elect officers, and
adopt rules
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The Vice Presidential Nominee
Presidential candidates usually submit
their choice for vice president in the runup to the party’s national convention
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Running For President
Stage 3: The General Election
- Debates
- TV and Radio
Advertising
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Money in U.S. Elections
Watergate
The 1972 Watergate scandal led to the
discovery that large amounts of
money from corporations and
individuals were “laundered” in
secret bank accounts outside the
country and used by Nixon’s
campaign for political and campaign
uses
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Efforts at Reform
Three strategies used to prevent
abuse in political contributions
1. Imposing limitations on giving,
receiving, and spending political money
2. Disclosure laws
3. Governmental subsidies
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The Federal Election Campaign Act
Serious campaign finance reform began in the
1970s with the Federal Election Campaign Act
(1971)
Buckley v. Valeo (1976) challenged the
constitutionality of campaign finance limits
Now, politicians must get small amounts of
money from many sources, with an exception
for “soft” money
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The Bipartisan Campaign
Reform Act (2002)
Largely banned party soft
money
Restored prohibition on
corporations and labor
unions for using general
treasury funds for electoral
purposes
Narrowed the definition of
issue advocacy
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Senators John McCain (R-Ariz) and Russell
Feingold (D-Wisc), sponsors of the BCRA
Soft Money
Until 1998, more important in
presidential contests than in
congressional contests
Between 1998 and 2002, soft money
contributions more than doubled
Soft money enabled large donors to
be major players in campaign
finance
Banned by BCRA
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Issue Advocacy Advertising
Promoting/attacking candidates without
explicitly saying “vote for” or “vote
against”
Surged in 1996
In recent elections, issue advocacy
groups have sometimes spent more than
the candidates did themselves
Often more negative than the ads run by
candidates
Only partially addressed by BCRA
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Section 527 and 501(c)
Organizations
527s: May advertise for or against
candidates
501(c): Include nonprofits whose
purpose is not political
America Coming Together
Media Fund
Swift Boat Veterans
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Independent Expenditures
Buckley v. Valeo (1976):
– Individuals/groups have “First Amendment”
right to spend as much money as they wish
Restrictions:
– Must be truly independent of the candidate
– May not use corporate or union money
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Continuing Problems with Campaign
Finance
Rising costs of campaigns
Declining competition
Increasing dependence on PACs and wealthy donors
Candidates’ personal wealth
Growth in individual contributions and use of the
Internet to fund campaigns
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Reforming the Nominating Process
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Possible Reforms
National presidential primary
Regional primaries
Expand use of caucuses
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Reforming the Electoral College
Should we use a direct popular election
instead of the electoral college?
Pros
Give every voter the
same weight in
presidential balloting
Winners would have
greater legitimacy
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Cons
Plan would undermine
federalism
Unrestrained majority
rule
Populous states would
lose influence