Elections Campaigns

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Elections Campaigns

• Government
• Mr. Biddle

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The War Room

• To gain insight on how a successful campaign is
  ran, we will be watching a documentary following
  the 1992 Campaign of President Bill Clinton.

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National Elections

• National Elections are held every 2 years
• Senators and Representatives are elected every 2
  years
• Presidential Elections are held every 4 years.
  (Very Lengthy and Complex)
• Candidates for these high offices must have
  access to hundreds of millions of dollars to run
  successful campaigns.

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Electing the President

• Candidates for President begin organizing their
  campaign a year before the elections

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Primary Elections

• The primary races are held in the spring.
• Each party votes on candidates to select who will
  represent that party in the General Election.

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2008 Democratic Candidates
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2008 Democratic Candidates

• Hillary Clinton
• Barack Obama
• John Edwards
• Joe Biden
• Christopher Dodd
• Mike Gravel
• Dennis Kucinish
• Bill Richardson

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2008 Republican Candidates
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2008 Republican Candidates

• Rudy Giuliani
• Mike Huckabee
• Duncan Hunter
• Alan Keyes
• John McCain
• Ron Paul
• Mitt Romney
• Tom Trancredo
• Fred Thompson

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Electing the President Cont.

• National Conventions are held in the summer of
  the Presidential election year.
• A National Convention is a ceremonial affair
  where the political party selects their candidate
  for the up coming election and they discuss their
  platform.

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Electing the President Cont.

• Campaigns get more intense the closer it gets to
  election day.
• During the final 8 weeks of the campaign the
  candidates spend long crazy hours traveling from
  state to state
• Sometimes they dont even know where they are.
• Election Day is the First Tuesday after the first
  Monday of November.

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The Electoral College

• In order to be elected President You must win at
  least 270 of the 538 available electoral votes.
• A states total electoral points is the same as
  the number of representatives and senators it has
  in Congress. (population)
• Plus Washington D.C. has 3

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The Electoral College

• The candidate who wins the popular vote typically
  wins the electoral vote.
• But it is not always the case.
• Ex. The 2000 Presidential Election

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The Electoral College

• Presidential Campaigns must pay close attention
  to the states with large populations
  (CA,NY,TX,PA,FL)
• If a candidate won the 11 biggest states they
  would get 270 points and win.
• Therefore the big states get a lot more
  campaigning attention.
• If it appears the big states will be split than
  the small ones become important.

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Campaign Strategy

• Campaign Manager- Responsible for the overall
  strategy and planning in a campaign organization
• James Carville was President Clintons Campaign
  Manager

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Campaign Strategy

• Campaign Managers make decisions like
• Should the Candidate wage an aggressive attack on
  their opponent?
• What should be the theme or slogan of the
  campaign?
• What issues should be stressed?
• How much money is spent of TV/Radio/Newspaper
  advertisement?
• What goes into advertisements?

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Campaign Strategy

• Field Workers- Help with the smaller duties of a
  campaign. (Usually Volunteers)
• Ring doorbells
• Call voters by phone
• Hang up signs
• What ever it takes to get votes
• It is very important for a candidate to maintain
  a positive image and his/her campaign crew must
  help to keep it.

George Stephanopoulos
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Campaign Strategy

• Debates- Candidates come together and discuss
  issues publically.
• Have been in every election since 1976
• Are held late in the campaign
• Influence the undecided voters

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Financing Campaigns

• Running a campaign is very expensive
• A seat in Congress (1996) cost about 1.5
  million
• Presidential candidates spent 400 Million
• In 2004, Presidential and Congressional
  candidates spent a combined 3.9 Billion
• Up to the 1970s candidates relied on
  contributions from business organizations, Labor
  Unions, and interested individuals

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Financing Campaigns

• The old system created problems, b/c it gave
  people with access to more money a lot of
  political power
• Candidates might owe favors to big businesses or
  people who gave them a lot of money

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Financing Campaigns

• The Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971
• Set a new system of campaign financing for
  Federal elections based on 3 principles
• Individuals can only donate up to 1,000
• Set limitations on what a candidate can spend
  (ruled unconstitutional)
• A candidate has to publicly tell how much was
  spent

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Financing Campaigns

• Political Action Committees (PAC)- an
  organization designed to support political
  candidates with campaign contributions.
• A person can contribute up to 5,000 to a PAC
• The PAC cant give but 1,000 to the candidate,
  but can use the money in other places in the
  candidates party.

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Financing Campaigns

• Soft Money- Money used in a campaign for general
  purposes for a party.
• Originally this information didnt have to be
  disclosed, but a ruling in 1991 said it did.

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Financing Campaigns

• Republicans got more soft money from big
  businesses
• Both parties felt that soft money was the key to
  victory
• 1996 campaigns raised huge issues on soft money
  and if it was being used ethically

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Financing Campaigns

• In the 2000 elections each party raised over 250
  million in soft money contributions
• The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act- banned the
  donations of soft money to national political
  parties, but it raised the limit for individuals
  to donate to 2,000

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Expanding Voting Rights

• Voting is absolutely vital to the success of
  American Democracy
• Americans select more than 500,000 government
  officials at all levels

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Expanding Voting Rights

• Suffrage- The civil right to vote
• Today almost anyone 18 years or older can vote
• However, this has not always been the case in
  this country

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Expanding Voting Rights

• Before the American Revolution women,
  African-Americans, and white males who didnt own
  property were not allowed to vote
• By the mid 1800s all adult white males were
  allowed to vote

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Expanding Voting RightsWomens Suffrage

• Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott
  organized the first womens right convention in
  1848
• Stanton urged that getting women the right to
  vote should be their first priority

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Expanding Voting RightsWomens Suffrage

• Women suffragists were accused of being
  unfeminine and immoral.
• The Suffragists were split into two groups, one
  focusing on getting the right to vote via
  Constitution and the other by each individual
  state.

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Expanding Voting RightsWomens Suffrage

• Women held a lot of marches to gain support and
  protest for suffrage

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Expanding Voting RightsWomens Suffrage

• One of the most famous speeches given by a woman
  suffragette was the Aint I a Woman speech by
  Sojourner Truth at a womens convention in Akron,
  Ohio.

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Expanding Voting RightsWomens Suffrage

• Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony felt
  that the only way to gain womens suffrage was to
  have the Constitution Amended.
• After WWI states began to individually grant
  women the right to vote and Congress began to
  accept the idea.
• 19th Amendment- Went into effect in 1920,
  guaranteeing women the right to vote.

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Expanding Voting RightsWomens Suffrage
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Expanding Voting RightsAfrican-American Suffrage

• Up to 1870 African Americans were not given the
  right to vote nationally
• The first effort to extend suffrage to African
  Americans nationwide came after the Civil War in
  1870

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Expanding Voting RightsAfrican-American Suffrage

• The 15th Amendment was ratified in 1870
• No state can deprive any citizen of the right to
  vote on account of race, color, or previous
  condition.

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Expanding Voting RightsAfrican-American Suffrage

• The 15th Amendment did not result in full
  suffrage for African Americans
• A number of states set up road blocks for African
  Americans
• Particularly the Southern States

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Grandfather Clause

• Only Voters whose grandfathers voted before 1867
  were eligible to vote without paying a poll tax
  or passing a literacy test.
• This was declared Unconstitutional in 1915.

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Literacy Test

• Used to keep African Americans from voting
• Very hard test designed to make a person fail
• The voting Rights Acts of 1965 and 1970 outlawed
  literacy tests

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Poll Tax

• An amount of money that a citizen had to pay
  before they could vote
• You also had to pay for back taxes on years you
  voted before
• You had to pay long before election day and show
  the receipt the day you voted
• The 24th Amendment was ratified in 1964 outlawing
  poll taxes in National Elections
• State elections in 1966(By Supreme Court)

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Voting Rights Act of 1965

• Opened the gates for African American involvement
  in voting (especially in the South)
• 1960 29 in the South
• 1990 60 in the South

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26th Amendment

• Originally the voting age was 21
• The draft and the Vietnam Conflict started a
  movement to lower the age to 18
• The argument was that if a person was old enough
  to die for his country he should be old enough to
  vote

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26th Amendment

• The 26th Amendment was ratified in 1971 lowering
  the voting age from 21 to 18

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