Campaigns and Voting Behavior

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1 EDWA pgs 1/3/05 10:47 AM Page Campaigns and Voting Behavior Chapter Outline The Nomination Game The Campaign Game Money and Campaigning Issues of the Times The Impact of Campaigns Whether To Vote: A Citizen s First Choice How Americans Vote: Explaining Citizens Decisions The Last Battle: The Electoral College Understanding Campaigns and Voting Behavior Summary Campaigning for any major office has become a massive undertaking in today s political world. Consider George W. Bush s grueling schedule for March 28 29, 2000, a relatively low-key period of the presidential campaign: The governor begins his day with an earlymorning flight from his home in Austin, Texas, to Dulles Airport in Northern Virginia. Upon landing in Virginia, Bush goes to a reception to raise money for his campaign. After lunch, he goes to the headquarters of Sallie Mae, a corporation that helps students finance 258

2 EDWA pgs 1/3/05 10:47 AM Page 259 Campaigns and Voting Behavior 259 educational expenses, to give a speech about his views on government and higher education. Governor Bush then boards his campaign plane again for a flight to Newark, N.J., where he participates in another fund-raiser and gives his standard campaign speech at dinner. After dinner, he goes to Manville, N.J., to address the Somerset County Republican Party convention. Finally, after 15 hours of traveling and campaigning, his day ends when he checks in at the Newark Hilton at 9:30 P.M. The next morning, Bush goes to the North Star Academy Charter school in Newark to give another speech on education. He then rides in a limousine to New York City to give a lunch speech on foreign affairs. After this quick stop in New York, Bush flies to Baltimore to meet with the local press, attend a youth rally, and deliver his standard campaign speech yet again at a dinner event. Finally, Bush takes his fourth flight in two days this time to Eau Claire, Wis., where he arrives after 14 hours on the go. It is often said that the presidency is the most difficult job in the world, but getting elected to the position may well be tougher. It is arguable that the long campaign for the presidency puts candidates under more continuous stress than they could ever face in the White House. The current American style of long and arduous campaigns has evolved from the belief of reformers that the cure for the problems of democracy is more democracy. Whether this approach is helpful or harmful to democracy is a question that arouses much debate with respect to American political campaigns. Some scholars believe it is important that presidential candidates go through a long and difficult trial by fire. Others, however, worry that the system makes it difficult for politicians with other responsibilities such as incumbent governors and senior senators to take a run at the White House. This chapter will give you a better understanding of the pros and cons of having a nomination and campaign process that is so open and democratic. The consequences for the scope of government are also debatable. Anthony King argues that American politicians do too little governing because they are always running scared in today s perpetual campaign. 1 From King s perspective, the campaign process does not allow politicians the luxury of trying out solutions to policy problems that might be immediately unpopular but would work well in the long run. The scope of government thus stays pretty much as is, given that politicians are usually too concerned with the next election to risk fundamental change. Of course, many analysts argue that officeholders constant worry about public opinion is good for democracy and that changes in the scope of government shouldn t be undertaken without extensive public consultation. As you read this chapter, consider whether today s nomination and campaign process provides too much opportunity for interaction between the public and candidates for office. Also, consider whether the entire process takes too much time and costs too much money two very important topics of debate in American politics today. With about half a million elected officials in this country, there is always someone somewhere running for office. One of these campaigns is for the world s most powerful office the presidency of the United States. This chapter will focus mainly on this election campaign, although we will explore some other campaigns as well. Chapter 10 will specifically discuss the congressional election process.

3 EDWA pgs 1/3/05 10:47 AM Page Chapter Eight Campaigns and Voting Behavior There are really two types of campaigns in American politics: campaigns for party nominations and campaigns between the two nominees. These are called nomination campaigns and election campaigns. The prize for the first is garnering a party s nod as its candidate; the prize for the second is winning an office. nomination The official endorsement of a candidate for office by a political party. Generally, success in the nomination game requires momentum, money, and media attention. campaign strategy The master game plan candidates lay out to guide their electoral campaign. national party convention The supreme power within each of the parties. The convention meets every four years to nominate the party s presidential and vicepresidential candidates and to write the party s platform. The Nomination Game A nomination is a party s official endorsement of a candidate for office. Anyone can play the nomination game, but few have any serious chance of victory. Generally, success in the nomination game requires money, media attention, and momentum. Campaign strategy is the way in which candidates attempt to manipulate each of these elements to achieve the nomination. Believe it or not, not every politician wants to run for president. One reason is that campaigns have become more physically and emotionally taxing than ever. As former Speaker of the House Thomas Foley said, I know of any number of people who I think would make good presidents, even great presidents, who are deterred from running by the torture candidates are obliged to put themselves through. 2 Running for president is an around-the-clock endurance test for over a year: sleep deprivation and strange hotel beds, countless plane rides, junk food eaten on the run, a lack of regular exercise and copious amounts of stress. As 1984 Democratic nominee Walter Mondale once said, For four years, that s all I did. I mean, all I did. That s all you think about. That s all you talk about...that s your leisure. That s your luxury...i told someone, The question is not whether I can get elected. The question is whether I can be elected and not be nuts when I get there. 3 In most advanced industrialized countries, campaigns last no more than two months according to either custom and/or law. In contrast, American campaigns seem endless; a presidential candidacy needs to be either announced or an open secret for at least a year before the election. In the winter of 2003, it was already clear to most observers that John Kerry, Howard Dean, John Edwards, Joe Lieberman, Dick Gephardt, and others were laying the groundwork for a shot at the Democratic presidential nomination for The road to the convention is long and full of stumbling blocks. From the convention, held in the summer of election years, only one candidate emerges as each party s standard bearer. Competing for Delegates In some ways, the nomination game is tougher than the general election game; it whittles a large number of players down to two. The goal of the nomination game is to win the majority of delegates support at the national party convention, which functions to formally select presidential and vice presidential candidates and to write the party platform. There are 50 different roads to the national convention, one through each state. From February through June of the election year, the individual state parties busily

4 EDWA pgs 1/3/05 10:48 AM Page 261 The Nomination Game 261 The New Hampshire primary has become so important in recent years that most presidential candidates spend more time there than anywhere else. When he ran for the Democratic nomination in 2004, John Kerry spent over two months campaigning in New Hampshire. Here, he is shown going door to door in Concord, New Hampshire, to ask people in person to vote for him. choose their delegates to the national convention via either caucuses or primaries. Candidates try to ensure that delegates committed to them are chosen to attend the convention. The Caucus Road. Before primaries existed, all state parties selected their delegates to the national convention in a meeting of state party leaders called a caucus. Sometimes one or two party bosses ran the caucus show often the governor of the state or the mayor of its largest city. Such state party leaders could control who went to the convention and how the state s delegates voted once they got there. They were the kingmakers of presidential politics who met in smoke-filled rooms at the convention to cut deals and form coalitions. Today s caucuses are different from those of the past. In the dozen states that still have them, caucuses are now open to all voters who are registered with the party. Caucuses are usually organized like a pyramid. Small, neighborhood, precinct-level caucuses are held initially often meeting in a church, an American Legion hall, or even someone s home. At this level, delegates are chosen, on the basis of their preference for a certain candidate, to attend county caucuses and then congressional district caucuses where delegates are again chosen to go to a higher level a state convention. At the state convention, which usually occurs months after the precinct caucuses, delegates are finally chosen to go to the national convention. caucus A meeting of all state party leaders for selecting delegates to the national party convention. Caucuses are usually organized as a pyramid.

5 EDWA pgs 1/3/05 10:48 AM Page Chapter Eight Campaigns and Voting Behavior Since 1972 the state of Iowa has held the nation s first caucuses. Because the Iowa caucuses are the first test of the candidates vote-getting ability, they usually become a full-blown media extravaganza. 4 Well-known candidates like Richard Gephardt in 2004 and John Glenn in 1984 have seen their campaigns virtually fall apart as a result of poor showings in Iowa. Most important, candidates who were not thought to be contenders have received tremendous boosts from unexpected strong showings in Iowa. An obscure former Georgia governor named Jimmy Carter took his first big presidential step by winning there in George Bush also made his first big step into the national scene with an upset victory over Ronald Reagan in Iowa in In 2004, John Kerry s surprise victory in Iowa gave a campaign that had been on the ropes newfound life. Because of the impact that Iowa s first-in-the-nation caucus can have, candidates spend more time during the nomination season than they do in the big states like California, Texas, and Florida. Howard Dean and John Edwards went to the trouble of visiting each one of Iowa s 99 counties in their efforts to win Iowa in presidential primaries Elections in which voters in a state vote for a candidate (or delegates pledged to him or her). Most delegates to the national party conventions are chosen this way. McGovern- Fraser Commission A commission formed at the 1968 Democratic convention in response to demands for reform by minority groups and others who sought better representation. The Primary Road. Today, most of the delegates to the Democratic and Republican national conventions are selected in presidential primaries, in which voters in a state go to the polls and vote for a candidate or delegates pledged to that candidate. As recently as the 1960s, primaries played a rather small role in the process; today, with the majority of delegates chosen in primaries, they have become essential to winning a party s presidential nomination. The increase in the number of presidential primaries occurred after the Democratic Party s disastrous 1968 national convention, which led many to rethink the delegate selection procedures then in place. As the war in Southeast Asia raged, another war of sorts took place in the streets of Chicago during the Democratic convention. Demonstrators against the war battled Mayor Richard Daley s Chicago police in what an official report later called a police riot. Beaten up in the streets and defeated in the convention hall, the antiwar faction won one concession from the party regulars: a special committee to review the party s structure and delegate selection procedures, which they felt had discriminated against them. Minorities, women, youth, and other groups that had been poorly represented in the party leadership also demanded a more open process of convention delegate selection. The result was a committee of inquiry, which was chaired first by Senator George McGovern and later by Representative Donald Fraser, who took over when McGovern left the committee to run for president. The McGovern-Fraser Commission had a mandate to try to make Democratic Party conventions more representative. As a result of their decisions, no longer could party leaders handpick the convention delegates virtually in secret. All delegate selection procedures were required to be open, so that party leaders had no more clout than college students or anyone else who wanted to participate. One of the unforseen results of these new rules was that many states decided that the easiest way to comply was simply to hold primary elections to select convention delegates. 5 Because state laws instituting primaries typically apply to selection of both parties selection of delegates, the Republican Party s nomination process was similarly transformed.

6 EDWA pgs 1/3/05 10:48 AM Page 263 The Nomination Game 263 Riots at the 1968 Democratic national convention led to the creation of the McGovern-Fraser Commission, which established open procedures and affirmative action guidelines for delegate selection. These reforms have made party conventions more representative than they once were. Few developments have changed American politics as much as the proliferation of presidential primaries. Presidential election watcher Theodore White calls the primaries the classic example of the triumph of goodwill over common sense. Says White, delegates, who were supposed to be free to vote by their own common sense and conscience, have become for the most part anonymous faces, collected as background for the television cameras, sacks of potatoes packaged in primaries, divorced from party roots, and from the officials who rule states and nation. 6 Whereas once many of the delegates were experienced politicians who knew the candidates, today they are typically people who have worked on a candidate s campaign and who owe their position as a delegate strictly to that candidate s ability to pull in primary votes. The Democratic Party became so concerned about the lack of a role for party leaders at their conventions that starting in 1984 they automatically set aside about 15 percent of their delegate slots for public officeholders and party officials. These politicians who are awarded convention seats on the basis of their position are known as superdelegates. The addition of these delegates to the Democratic national convention was designed to restore an element of peer review to the process, ensuring participation of the people most familiar with the candidates. However, to date the primaries have proved to be far more crucial than the superdelegates. The primary season begins during the winter in New Hampshire. Like the Iowa caucuses, the importance of New Hampshire is not the number of delegates or how superdelegates National party leaders who automatically get a delegate slot at the Democratic national party convention.

7 EDWA pgs 1/3/05 10:48 AM Page Chapter Eight Campaigns and Voting Behavior frontloading The recent tendency of states to hold primaries early in the calendar in order to capitalize on media attention. Why It Matters Early Delegate Contests In baseball, no one would declare a team out of the pennant race after it lost the first two games of the season. But in the race for the presidential nomination, the results of the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary frequently end the campaigns of many candidates after only a handful of national delegates have been selected. These contests are important not because of the number of delegates that are chosen, but rather that they are the first indicators of public support. If a candidate does not do well in these first two contests, money and media attention dry up quickly. representative the state is, but rather that it is traditionally the first primary. 7 At this early stage, the campaign is not for delegates, but for images candidates want the rest of the country to see them as front-runners. The frenzy of political activity in this small state is given lavish attention in the national press. During the week of the primary, half the portable satellite dishes in the country can be found in Manchester, N.H., and the networks move their anchors and top reporters to the scene to broadcast the nightly news. In recent years, over a fifth of TV coverage of the nomination races has been devoted to the New Hampshire primary. 8 At one time, it was considered advantageous for a state to choose its delegates late in the primary season so that it could play a decisive role. However, in recent years states that have held late primaries, such as Pennsylvania and New Jersey, have found their primary results irrelevant given that one candidate had already secured the nomination by the time their primaries were held. With so much attention being paid to the early contests, more states have moved their primaries earlier in the calendar to capitalize on the media attention. This frontloading of the process resulted in 71 percent of pledged Democratic delegates being chosen within six weeks of the New Hampshire primary in For 2008, at least one big state California has decided to move its primary back to the end of the calendar, as you can read about it in Issues of the Times: Will the Presidential Candidates Pay Any Attention to California in 2008? Week after week, the primaries serve as elimination contests, as the media continually monitor the number of delegates won. The politicians, the press, and the public all love a winner. Candidates who fail to score early wins get labeled as losers and typically drop out of the race. Usually they have little choice since losing quickly inhibits a candidate s ability to raise the money necessary to win in other states. As one veteran fund-raiser put it, People don t lose campaigns. They run out of money and can t get their planes in the air. That s the reality. 9 In the 1980 delegate chase, a commonly used football term became established in the language of American politics. After George Bush scored a surprise victory over Ronald Reagan in Iowa, he proudly claimed to possess the big mo momentum. Actually, Bush had only a little mo and quickly fell victim to a decisive Reagan victory in New Hampshire. But the term neatly describes what candidates for the nomination are after. Primaries and caucuses are more than an endurance contest, though they are certainly that; they are also proving grounds. Week after week, the challenge is to do better than expected. Learning from his father s experience, George W. Bush jokingly told the reporters on his campaign plane to: Please stow your expectations securely in your overhead bins, as they may shift during the trip and can fall and hurt someone especially me. 10 To get mo going, candidates have to beat people they were not expected to beat, collect margins above predictions, and above all else never lose to people they were expected to trounce. Momentum is good to have, but it is no guarantee of victory because candidates with a strong base sometimes bounce back. Political scientist Larry Bartels found that substantive political appeal may overwhelm the impact of momentum. 11 Indeed, after being soundly trounced by John McCain in New Hampshire in 2000, George W. Bush quickly bounced back to win the big states necessary to get the Republican nomination.

8 EDWA pgs 1/3/05 10:48 AM Page 265 The Nomination Game 265 Evaluating the Primary and Caucus System. The primaries and the caucuses are here to stay. However, many political scientists are not particularly happy with the system. Criticisms of the marathon campaign are numerous; here are a few of the most important: Disproportionate attention goes to the early caucuses and primaries. Take a look at Figure 8.1, which shows how critics think America s media-dominated campaigns are distorted by early primaries and caucuses. Neither New Hampshire nor Iowa is particularly representative of the national electorate. Both are rural, both have only small minority populations, and neither is at the center of the political mainstream. Whereas Iowa is more liberal than the nation as a whole, New Hampshire is the reverse. Although Iowa and New Hampshire are not always make or break contests, they play a key and a disproportionate role in building momentum, money, and media attention. Prominent politicians find it difficult to take time out from their duties to run. Running for the presidency has become a full-time job. It is hard to balance the American Electoral Rules: How Do They Influence Campaigns? Figure 8.1 The Inflated Importance of Iowa and New Hampshire In 2004, the Wisconsin Advertising Project found that 48 percent of the money spent by candidates for the Democratic nomination on TV ads were run in either Iowa or New Hampshire, even though these two small states selected only about 2 percent of the convention delegates. The incredible degree to which the candidates and the media focus on these two small states has become a regular feature of the presidential nominating process. Here you can see a map of the 50 states drawn to scale in terms of the media attention their primaries and caucuses received in 1996; note how blown out of proportion Iowa and New Hampshire are on the map. New Hampshire California Iowa New York Arizona Texas Ohio N.J. Georgia Florida Source: Center for Media and Public Affairs, as reported in Harold W. Stanley and Richard G. Niemi, Vital Statistics on American Politics, 6 th ed. (Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Press), 1998,

9 EDWA pgs 1/3/05 10:48 AM Page 266 Issues 266 Chapter Seven Fifteen of Political Social Welfare Parties thetimes Policymaking The Issue: Will the Presidential Candidates Pay Any Attention to California in 2008? In 2004, states that failed to schedule their primary early were irrelevant to the nomination process. Most of these states were stuck with dates that were traditional for them. Given the frontloading of the process, states that want to be influential have in recent decades moved their primary dates earlier and earlier. But as we look ahead to 2008, our nation s largest state California has surprised many observers by deciding to move its primary date three months later than it was in This represents the first time in recent memory that a major state had moved its presidential primary date backward. Whether or not this is good or bad for California, as well as for the nation as a whole, is likely to be debated for the next several years. Read All About It California Moves To Reschedule Its Primary from March to June By Dean E. Murphy August 30, 2004 SACRAMENTO The state that helped push the presidential primary season into a fast-forward frenzy more than a decade ago is now abruptly shifting it into reverse. A bill that would move the California presidential primary to June from March beginning in 2008 breezed through the State Legislature this week with bipartisan support. The move would amount to unconditional surrender by the country s most delegate-rich state in the contest to influence the presidential nomination process. It defies logic, said Robert D. Loevy, a professor of political science at Colorado College and a scholar of presidential primaries. You would think in a democracy with a presidency which is the top governing officer that state legislatures would be working hard to see their citizens have as much influence as possible. California held a June primary for a half-century before the Legislature voted in 1993 to move the primary to March, largely in Please see California Page 267

10 EDWA pgs 1/3/05 10:48 AM Page 267 California Continued from Page 266 response to the so-called Super Tuesday primaries scheduled by Southern states in the 1980 s, which were draining the California vote of its influence. For many years, the June date made California a kingmaker in both parties, as presidential candidates methodically worked their way West in a primary system that involved far fewer contests than today.... But the last time California played a pivotal role was in 1984, when Walter F. Mondale emerged from a tight battle with Gary Hart for the Democratic nomination. California backers of the original June date say the three presidential elections with a March primary in 1996, 2000 and this year show that it failed in reviving California s fortunes. In all three of those elections, either the parties had settled on a nominee before the March primary here or candidates chose to focus their attention on other states that had also moved their primaries forward and are much smaller and cheaper to campaign in. Even with the move to March, California found itself behind some 20 other states in a primary sweepstakes that has states already jockeying for advantage in In New Hampshire, which has the country s first primary, state law requires that the primary be held at least one week before any other state s. It is a constant friction with other states where people want to keep moving their primaries to an earlier date, said Art Torres, chairman of the California Democratic Party, who supports moving the date back to June. By the time you are done, we will have primaries at Halloween. You can never win at that level. To make matters worse, the March elections in California have been a flop among voters: turnout this March was the lowest for any presidential primary in the state s history in percentage terms, making it difficult for candidates for offices on the same ballot to rouse interest in their races. People realize the March primary has been a disaster, said Susie Swatt, chief of staff for State Senator Ross Johnson, the Orange County Republican who wrote the bill.... DanSchnur,whohasworkedon four presidential campaigns, includingthatofsenatorjohnmccainin 2000,saidtheMarchdateremaineda big inconvenience for local and state campaigns, particularly because it means candidates must decide whethertorunmuchearlier.butmr. Schnur said the biggest losers have been the voters. The voters body clocks aren t ready for politics the day after the bowl games end, said Mr. Schnur, who favored the switch to March but now prefers June. Kathy Sullivan, chairwoman of the Democratic Party in New Hampshire, said part of her longs for the old days when New Hampshire held its primary in March (when there was less snow) and California held its in June (when the vote still mattered). Ms. Sullivan said those days were probably gone forever, but she said the primary system has compensated in a way that keeps California relevant. People have come to recognize in this process, and I think you saw it with the Democrats in the early states this year, that we need to nominate a candidate who is going to be able to run an effective race nationwide, Ms. Sullivan said. So people were not necessarily choosing who is best for New Hampshire or Iowa or Michigan or South Carolina. Professor Loevy said that should not be good enough for the country s most populous state. He said California s mistake in 1993 was not moving its primary even earlier. He said a Halloween election was preferable to one in June with no meaning. Now they are going in exactly the wrong direction, he said. Think About It After the California legislature passed this bill, the New York Times wrote an editorial praising California for trying to reverse the pattern of frontloading presidential primaries. Do you agree with the position of the New York Times editorial board that this was a good move on California s part? Do you think other states will now move their primary dates back for 2008? Should they? Why or why not?

11 EDWA pgs 1/3/05 10:49 AM Page Chapter Eight Campaigns and Voting Behavior Televised debates have become a regular part of presidential primaries. Here, candidates for the 2004 Democratic nomination are shown participating in a TV forum. national primary A proposal by critics of the caucuses and presidential primaries systems would replace these electoral methods with a nationwide primary held early in the election year. regional primaries A proposal by critics of the caucuses and presidential primaries to replace these electoral methods with a series of primaries held in each geographic region. demands of serving in high public office with running a presidential campaign. Of the six Democratic candidates for the presidency in 2004 who were serving in Congress, the average voting participation rate in 2003 was a mere 52 percent far below the average congressional attendance rate of about 90 percent. 12 Money plays too big a role in the caucuses and primaries. Momentum means money getting more of it than your opponents do. Many people think that money plays too large a role in American presidential elections. Participation in primaries and caucuses is low and unrepresentative. Although about 50 percent of the population votes in the November presidential election, only about 20 percent casts ballots in presidential primaries. Participation in caucus states is much lower because a person must usually devote several hours to attending a caucus. Except for Iowa, where media attention usually boosts the turnout to about 20 percent, only about 5 percent of eligible voters typically show up for caucuses. Moreover, voters in primaries and caucuses are hardly representative of voters at large; they tend to be older and more affluent than the typical citizen. The system gives too much power to the media. Critics contend that the media have replaced the party bosses as the new kingmakers. The press decides who has momentum at any given moment, and readily labels candidates as winners or losers. Is this the best way to pick a president? Critics think not and have come up with a number of reform proposals (see You Are the Policymaker: National and Regional Presidential Primary Proposals ). For the foreseeable future, however, states will continue to select delegates in primaries and caucuses to attend the national conventions, where the nominees are formally chosen.

12 EDWA pgs 1/3/05 10:49 AM Page 269 The Nomination Game 269 You Are the Policymaker National and Regional Presidential Primary Proposals The idea of holding a national primary to select party nominees has been discussed virtually ever since state primaries were introduced. In 1913, President Woodrow Wilson proposed it in his first message to Congress. Since then over 250 proposals for a national presidential primary have been introduced in Congress. These proposals do not lack public support; opinion polls have consistently shown that a substantial majority of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents alike favor such reform. According to its proponents, a national primary would bring directness and simplicity to the process for the voters as well as the candidates. The length of the campaign would be shortened, and no longer would votes in one state have more political impact than votes in another. The concentration of media coverage on this one event, say its advocates, would increase not only political interest in the nomination decision but also public understanding of the issues involved. A national primary would not be so simple, respond the critics. Because Americans would not want a candidate nominated with 25 percent of the vote from among a field of six candidates, in most primaries a runoff election between the top two finishers in each party would have to be held. So much for making the campaign simpler, national primary critics note. Each voter would have to vote three times for president twice in the primaries and once in November. Another common criticism of a national primary is that only well-established politicians would have a shot at breaking through in such a system. Big money and big attention from the national media would become more crucial than ever. Obscure candidates, such as Jimmy Carter in 1976, would never have a chance. Do Americans, however, really want politicians without an established reputation to become president? Perhaps more feasible than a national primary is holding a series of regional primaries in which, say, states in the Eastern time zone would vote one week, those in the Central time zone the next, and so on. This would impose a more rational structure and cut down on candidate travel. A regional primary system would also put an end to the jockeying between states for an advantageous position in the primary season. The major problem with the regional primary proposal, however, is the advantage gained by whichever region goes first. For example, if the Western states were the first to vote, any candidate from California would have a clear edge in building momentum. Although most of the proposed plans call for the order of the regions to be determined by lottery, this would not erase the fact that regional advantages would surely be created from year to year. Put yourself in the role of policymaker. Do the advantages of the national primary or of the regional primary proposal outweigh the disadvantages? Would either represent an improvement over the current system? Keep in mind that there are almost always unintended consequences associated with reforms. The Convention Send-off Party conventions provided great drama in American politics for more than a century. Great speeches were given, dark-horse candidates suddenly appeared, and ballot after ballot was held as candidates jockeyed to win the nomination. Today, the drama has largely been drained from the conventions, as the winner is a foregone conclusion. No longer can a powerful governor shift a whole block of votes at the last minute.

13 EDWA pgs 1/3/05 10:49 AM Page Chapter Eight Campaigns and Voting Behavior Delegates selected in primaries and open caucuses have known preferences. The last time there was any doubt as to who would win at the convention was in 1976, when Ford barely edged out Reagan for the Republican nomination. The parties have also learned that it is not in their best interest to provide high drama. The raucous conventions held by the Republicans in 1964 and the Democrats in 1968 and 1972 captured the public s attention, but they also exposed such divisiveness that the parties were unable to unite for the fall campaign. Without such drama, the networks have scaled back their coverage substantially and the Nielsen ratings have fallen to new lows. 13 In 2000, ABC chose to air preseason Monday Night Football games on two nights when they would normally have devoted at least some time to the conventions. Even with the condensed TV coverage, the Nielsen ratings have fallen to abysmal levels. 14 The highest rating received by any network in 2000 for convention coverage occurred when 22 million viewers tuned in to watch Al Gore s speech to the Democratic convention. By contrast, the next week CBS alone got 58 million viewers for its final episode of Survivor. One can hardly blame people for tuning out the conventions when little news is made at them. Today s conventions are carefully scripted to present the party in its best light. Delegates are no longer there to argue for their causes, but rather to merely support their candidate. The parties carefully orchestrate a massive send-off for the presidential and vice-presidential candidates. The party s leaders are there in force, as are many of its most important followers people whose input will be key during the campaign. Although conventions are no longer very interesting, they are a significant rallying point for the parties. The conventions are also important in developing the party s policy positions and in promoting political representation. In the past, conventions were essentially an assembly of state- and local-party leaders, gathered together to bargain over the selection of the party s ticket. Almost all delegates were White, male, and over 40 years old. Lately, party reformers, especially among the Democrats, have worked hard to make the conventions far more demographically representative. The Campaign Game Once nominated, candidates concentrate on campaigning for the general election. These days, the word campaign is part of American political vocabulary, but it was not always so. The term was originally a military one: Generals mounted campaigns, using their scarce resources to achieve strategic objectives. Political campaigns are like that, too resources are scarce, expenditures in the presidential race are limited by federal law, and both have to be timed and targeted. A candidate s time and energy are also finite. Choices must be made concerning where to go and how long to spend at each stop. Campaigns involve more than organization and leadership. Artistry also enters the picture, for campaigns deal in images. The campaign is the canvas on which political strategists try to paint portraits of leadership, competence, caring, and other images Americans value in presidents. To project the right image to the voters, three ingredients are needed: a campaign organization, money, and media attention.

14 EDWA pgs 1/3/05 10:49 AM Page 271 Organizing the Campaign In every campaign, there is too much to do and too little time to do it. Every candidate must prepare for nightly banquets and endless handshaking. More important, to effectively organize their campaigns candidates must do the following: Get a campaign manager. Some candidates try to run their own campaign, but they usually end up regretting it. A professional campaign manager can keep the candidate from getting bogged down in organizational details. This person also bears the day-to-day responsibility for keeping the campaign square on its message and setting its tone (see Making a Difference: Mary Beth Cahill Takes Charge of the Kerry Campaign ). Get a fund-raiser. Money, as this chapter will Making a Difference soon discuss in detail, is an important key to election victory. Get a campaign counsel. With all the current federal regulation of campaign financing, legal assistance is essential to ensure compliance with the laws. Hire media and campaign consultants. Candidates have more important things to do with their time than plan ad campaigns, contract for buttons and bumper stickers, and buy TV time and newspaper space. Professionals can get them the most exposure for their money. Assemble a campaign staff. It is desirable to hire as many professionals as the campaign budget allows, but it is also important to get a volunteer coordinator to ensure that envelopes are licked, doorbells rung, and other small but vital tasks addressed. Many campaign volunteers are typically young people, who are the most likely to have the energy for this sort of work. However, in recent years high school seniors have expressed less and less interest in participating in campaigns (see Young People and Politics: Declining Interest in Working in Campaigns. Plan the logistics. A modern presidential campaign involves jetting around the country at an incredible pace. Good advance people handle the complicated details of candidate scheduling and see that events are well publicized and well attended. Get a research staff and policy advisers. Candidates have little time to master the complex issues reporters will ask about. Policy advisers often distinguished academics feed them information they need to keep up with events. The Campaign Game 271 You Are a Professional Campaign Manager Mary Beth Cahill Takes Charge of the Kerry Campaign Mary Beth Cahill is credited by many observers for turning around John Kerry s campaign for the 2004 Democratic nomination. When she took over the job of Kerry s campaign manager in November 2003, the campaign had developed a reputation for being disorganized, with no one clearly being in charge. On her first day she laid down the law that she would be in charge from now on and that anyone who had a problem with this should quit immediately. A few did, but most stayed on. Cahill s contribution from then on was not any brilliant innovative strategy, but rather simply keeping the campaign on track and staying on message. Doing so in any campaign is always easier said than done, and in steadily guiding the Kerry campaign for the Democratic nomination Mary Beth Cahill surely made a difference. You Are a Presidential Campaign Consultant

15 EDWA pgs 1/3/05 10:49 AM Page Chapter Eight Campaigns and Voting Behavior Young People and Politics Declining Interest in Working in Campaigns Walk into any campaign headquarters and chances are good that you ll find a lot of young people working away. Many of our nation s leaders got their political start working in a campaign when they were young. If you want to get involved in politics as a possible career, this is where you begin. The work is often tedious, the hours are long, and the financial rewards are usually minimal. Hence, full-time campaign work is not really suitable for either someone with an active career or a retired person. Campaign jobs have been and likely will continue to be filled primarily by young people. Nevertheless, as you can see in the figure below, there has been a decline in interest in working on campaigns among High School seniors over the last quarter century. Whereas between 15 to 20 percent of those interviewed in the late 1970s and early 1980s said they planned to work on a campaign or had already done so, in recent Hire a pollster. Dozens of professional polling firms conduct opinion research to tell candidates how they are viewed by the voters and what is on the voters minds. Get a good press secretary. Candidates running for major office are dogged by reporters every step of the way. The reporters need news, and a good press secretary can help them make their deadlines with stories that the campaign would like to see reported. Establish a website. A website is a relatively inexpensive way of getting a candidate s message out. Most of these tasks cost money. Campaigns are not cheap, and the role of money in campaigns is a controversial one. Money and Campaigning There is no doubt that campaigns are expensive and, in America s high-tech political arena, growing more so. As the old saying goes, Money is the mother s milk of politics. Candidates need money to build a campaign organization and to get their message out. Many people and groups who want certain things from the government are all too willing to give it; thus there is the common perception that money buys votes and influence. The following sections examine the role of money in campaigns.

16 EDWA pgs 1/3/05 10:49 AM Page 273 Money and Campaigning 273 years only about 10 percent have expressed an interest in campaign work. Questions for Discussion: At the same time that young people have been expressing less interest in working on political campaigns, they have been volunteering for community organizations at record rates. Might the decline in interest in campaign simply be because today s young people are focusing on non-political forms of community action? Do you think that one reason that young people may not be very interested in working in campaigns may be that the issues just discussed in recent campaigns just aren t of much interest to young people? If so, what sort of issues might stimulate more young people to sign up for campaign work? If more young people were to volunteer for work in campaigns, what difference might it make? Do you think the tenor of recent campaigns would have been changed if more young people had been involved? PLAN TO WORK ON A CAMPAIGN OR HAVE DONE SO Source: Authors analysis of Monitoring the Future national surveys of high school seniors. The Maze of Campaign Finance Reforms As the costs of campaigning skyrocketed with the growth of television, and as the Watergate scandal exposed large, illegal campaign contributions, momentum developed for campaign finance reform in the early 1970s. Several public interest lobbies (see Chapter 9), notably Common Cause and the National Committee for an Effective Congress, led the drive. In 1974, Congress passed the Federal Election Campaign Act. It had two main goals: to tighten reporting requirements for contributions and to limit overall expenditures. The 1974 act and its subsequent amendments: created the Federal Election Commission (FEC). A bipartisan body, the sixmember FEC administers the campaign finance laws and enforces compliance with their requirements. created the Presidential Election Campaign Fund. The Federal Election Commission is in charge of doling out money from this fund to qualified presidential candidates. Money for this fund is raised via a $3 voluntary check-off box on income tax returns, which currently only about 11 percent of taxpayers do. provided partial public financing for presidential primaries. Presidential candidates who raise $5,000 on their own in at least 20 states can get individual contributions of up to $250 matched by the federal treasury. Money received at this stage of the campaign is commonly known as matching funds. If presidential candidates accept federal support, they agree to limit their campaign expenditures to an amount Federal Election Campaign Act A law passed in 1974 for reforming campaign finances. The act created the Federal Election Commission (FEC), provided public financing for presidential primaries and general elections, limited presidential campaign spending, required disclosure, and attempted to limit contributions.

17 EDWA pgs 1/3/05 10:49 AM Page Chapter Eight Campaigns and Voting Behavior Federal Election Commission (FEC) A six-member bipartisan agency created by the Federal Election Campaign Act of The FEC administers and enforces campaign finance laws. Presidential Election Campaign Fund Funded by the $3 check-off on IRS tax forms, this fund provides a source of money for matching funds in the primaries and complete financing of Democratic and Republican presidential nominees in the general election. matching funds Contributions of up to $250 from individuals are matched for qualified presidential candidates in the primaries. The Debate Over Campaign Finance Reform prescribed by federal law. For 2004, this amounted to approximately $45 million in the primaries. Because of this limit, President Bush, Senator Kerry, and Governor Dean all decided not to accept matching funds during the 2004 primaries. provided full public financing for major party candidates in the general election. For the general election, each major party nominee gets a fixed amount of money to cover their campaign expenses. For 2004 this amounted to $75 million. Unlike in the primaries, the FEC pays all the costs of general election campaigns, thereby making the offer too good for anyone to turn down. Thus, although George W. Bush and John Kerry each decided not to accept federal support in the campaign for their party s nomination, they followed the practice of all previous major party nominees in taking federal money for the fall campaign. required full disclosure. Regardless of whether they accept any federal funding, all candidates for federal office must file periodic reports with the FEC, listing who contributed and how the money was spent. In the spirit of immediate disclosure, some 2004 presidential candidates regularly posted updated campaign contribution information on their websites. limited contributions. Scandalized to find out that some wealthy individuals had contributed $1 million to the 1972 Nixon campaign, Congress limited individual contributions to presidential and congressional candidates to $1,000. The McCain-Feingold Act increased this limit to $2,000 as of 2004, and provided for it to be indexed to rise along with inflation in the future. Although the 1974 campaign reforms were generally welcomed by both parties, the constitutionality of the Federal Election Campaign Act was challenged in the 1976 case of Buckley v. Valeo. In this case the Supreme Court struck down the portion of the act that had limited the amount individuals could contribute to their own campaigns as a violation of free speech. This aspect of the Court ruling made it possible for Ross Perot to spend over $60 million of his own fortune on his independent presidential candidacy in 1992, and for John Kerry to loan his campaign over $7 million for the 2004 Democratic nomination contest. Another loophole was opened in 1979 with an amendment to the original act that made it easier for political parties to raise money for voter registration drives, to distribute campaign material at the grassroots level, and for generic party advertising. Money raised for such purposes is known as soft money and is not subject to any contribution limits. In 2000, an unprecedented amount of money flowed into the coffers of the national parties through this loophole. Nearly half a billion dollars was raised by the two parties in 2000 via soft money contributions, with many of the contributions coming in increments of hundreds of thousands of dollars. AT&T alone gave over $3 million in soft money, as did the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees. Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Russell Feingold (D-WI) crusaded for years to remove the taint of large soft money campaign contributions from the political system. Their efforts finally came to fruition in 2002 when their bill was passed by the Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush. The McCain-Feingold Act: (1) banned soft money contributions; (2) increased the amount that individuals could give to candidates from $1,000 to $2,000 and indexed the latter amount to rise in the future along with inflation; and (3) barred groups from running issue ads within 60 days of a

18 EDWA pgs 1/3/05 10:49 AM Page 275 Money and Campaigning 275 general election if they refer to a federal candidate and are not funded through a PAC (i.e., with funds regulated by the campaign finance system). These provisions were challenged in the Courts, and in the 2003 case of McConnell v. Federal Election Commission the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the new law by a 5-4 margin. Overall, there is little doubt that campaign finance legislation since 1974 has made campaigns more open and honest. Small donors are encouraged and the rich are restricted. A campaign s financial records are now open for all to examine, and FEC auditors try to make sure the regulations are enforced. As Frank Sorauf writes, the detailed FEC reports have become a wonder of the democratic political world. Nowhere else do scholars and journalists find so much information about the funding of campaigns, and the openness of Americans about the flow of money stuns many other nationals accustomed to silence and secrecy about such traditionally private matters. 15 The Proliferation of PACs The campaign reforms also encouraged the spread of Political Action Committees, generally known as PACs. Before the 1974 reforms, corporations were technically forbidden from donating money to political campaigns, but many wrote big checks anyway. Unions could make indirect contributions, although limits were set on how they could aid candidates and political parties. The 1974 reforms created a new, more open, way for interest groups like business and labor to contribute to campaigns. Any interest group, large or small, can now get into the act by forming its own PAC to directly channel contributions of up to $5,000 per candidate. Because Buckley v. Valeo extended the right of free speech to PACs, they can spend unlimited amounts indirectly, that is, if such activities are not coordinated with the campaign. soft money Political contributions earmarked for partybuilding expenses at the grass-roots level or for generic party advertising. For a time, such contributions were unlimited, until they were banned by the McCain-Feingold Act. political action committees (PACs) Funding vehicles created by the 1974 campaign finance reforms. A corporation, union, or some other interest group can create a PAC and register it with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), which will meticulously monitor the PAC s expenditures.

19 EDWA pgs 1/3/05 10:49 AM Page Chapter Eight Campaigns and Voting Behavior Why It Matters Money and Elections As the 2004 primaries approached, most pundits argued that any serious candidate for the presidency needed to raise $15 million by the end of 2003 in order to be classified as a serious contender. Raising money is one concrete indicator of support before the first votes are cast. In addition, money provides a campaign with the ability to hire sufficient staff and advertising time to get its message out. A campaign that is short on money can hardly get its message out. As of 2004, the FEC reported that there were 3,868 PACs. In the 2002 congressional elections, PACs contributed over $258 million to House and Senate candidates. Many believe that this expansion has led to a system of open graft. 16 Few developments since the Watergate crisis have generated so much cynicism about government as the explosive growth of PACs over the last three decades. A PAC is formed when a business association, or some other interest group, decides to contribute to candidates it believes will be favorable toward its goals. The group registers as a PAC with the FEC, and then puts money into the PAC coffers. The PAC can collect money from stockholders, members, and other interested parties. It then donates the money to candidates, often after careful research on their issue stands and past voting records. One very important ground rule prevails: All expenditures must be meticulously reported to the FEC. If PACs are corrupting democracy, at least they are doing so openly. Candidates need PACs because high-tech campaigning is expensive. Tightly contested races for the House of Representatives can sometimes cost $1 million; Senate races can easily cost $1 million for television alone. PACs play a major role in paying for expensive campaigns. Thus there emerges a symbiotic relationship between the PACs and the candidates: Candidates need money, which they insist can be used without compromising their integrity; PACs want access to officeholders, which they insist can be gained without buying votes. Justin Dart of Dart Industries, a close friend of former President Reagan, remarks of his PAC that talking to politicians is fine, but with a little money, they hear you better. 17 There is an abundance of PACs willing to help the candidates. There are big PACs, such as the Realtors Political Action Committee and the American Medical Association Political Action Committee. There are little ones, too, representing smaller industries or business associations: EggPAC, FishPAC, FurPAC, LardPAC, and for the beer distributors, SixPAC. 18 Table 8.1 lists the business, labor, and ideological PACs that gave the most money to congressional candidates in 2000 and shows which party each favored. Critics of the PAC system worry that all this money leads to PAC control over what the winners do once in office. Archibald Cox and Fred Wertheimer of Common Cause write that the role of PACs in campaign finance is robbing our nation of its democratic ideals and giving us a government of leaders beholden to the monied interests who make their election possible. 19 On some issues, it seems clear that PAC money has made a difference. The Federal Trade Commission, for example, once passed a regulation requiring that car dealers list known mechanical defects on the window sticker of used cars. The National Association of Automobile Dealers quickly became one of the largest donors to congressional incumbents, contributing just over $1 million to candidates of both parties. Soon afterward, 216 representatives cosponsored a House resolution nullifying the FTC regulation. Of these representatives, 186 had been aided by the auto dealers PAC. 20 It is questionable, however, whether such examples are the exception or the rule. Most PACs give money to candidates who agree with them in the first place. For instance, the antiabortion PACs do not waste their money supporting pro-choice candidates. Frank Sorauf s careful review of the subject concludes that there simply are no data in the systematic studies that would support the popular assertions about the

20 EDWA pgs 1/3/05 10:49 AM Page 277 Money and Campaigning 277 Table 8.1 The Big-Spending PACs According to an analysis of Federal Election Commission data by the Center for Responsive Politics, here are the largest business, labor, and ideological/single-issue PAC contributors to congressional candidates for the election cycle and the percentage that they gave to Republicans. AMOUNT CONTRIBUTED PERCENTAGE GIVEN TO REPUBLICANS Business Microsoft $3,942, Goldman Sachs Group $3,546, AT&T $3,510, National Association of Realtors $3,298, Association of Trial Lawyers $2,951, United Parcel Service $2,919, Philip Morris $2,830, Labor American Federation of State/County/ Municipal Employees $6,500,889 1 Service Employees International Union $4,724,664 4 Communication Workers of America $3,687,614 1 International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers $3,369,840 3 United Food and Commercial Workers Union $3,242,057 1 Ideological/Single-Issue National Rifle Association $2,884, Emily s List $1,979,829 0 Source: Center for Responsive Politics. buying of the Congress or about any other massive influence of money on the legislative process. 21 The impact of PAC money on presidents is even more doubtful. Presidential campaigns are, of course, partly subsidized by the public and so are less dependent upon PACs. Moreover, presidents have well-articulated positions on most important issues. A small contribution from any one PAC is not likely to turn a presidential candidate s head. Money matters in campaigns and sometimes also during legislative votes. Although the influence of PACs may be exaggerated, the high cost of running for office ensures their continuing major role in the campaign process. PACs and the Money Trail Does Money Buy Victory? Money is, of course, absolutely crucial to electoral victory; important offices are rarely won these days by candidates who spend virtually nothing. One of the last of this nonspending breed was Senator William Proxmire of Wisconsin. He was succeeded by

21 EDWA pgs 1/3/05 10:50 AM Page Chapter Eight Campaigns and Voting Behavior wealthy businessman Herbert Kohl, who funded his multimillion-dollar campaign entirely out of his own pocket. As Kohl said, he was so rich that no one had to worry about him being bought by special interests. Perhaps the most basic complaint about money and politics is that there may be a direct link between dollars spent and votes received. Few have done more to dispel this charge than political scientist Gary Jacobson. His research has shown that the more incumbents spend, the worse they do. 22 This fact is not as odd as it at first sounds. It simply means that incumbents who face a tough opponent must raise more money to meet the challenge. When a challenger is not a serious threat (as they all too often are not), incumbents can afford to campaign cheaply. More important than having more money is having enough money. Herbert Alexander calls this the doctrine of sufficiency. As he writes, Enough money must be spent to get a message across to compete effectively but outspending one s opponent is not always necessary even an incumbent with a massive ratio of higher spending. 23 One case in point is that of the late Paul Wellstone, a previously obscure political science professor who beat an incumbent senator in 1990 despite being outspent 8 to 1. Another example is the 1994 California Senate race, in which incumbent Democrat Dianne Feinstein prevailed even though she was outspent 2 to 1 by Republican challenger Michael Huffington. You Are a Media Consultant Television and Presidential Campaigns The Media and the Campaign Money matters, and so does media attention. Media coverage is determined by two factors: (1) how candidates use their advertising budget, and (2) the free attention they get as newsmakers. The first, obviously, is relatively easy to control; the second is harder, but not impossible. Almost every logistical decision in a campaign where to eat breakfast, whom to include on the rostrum, when to announce a major policy proposal is calculated according to its intended media impact. About half the total budget for a presidential or senatorial campaign is used for television advertising. No major candidate these days can do without what political scientist Dan Nimmo calls the political persuaders. 24 A new profession of political consultants has emerged, and for the right price, they can turn a disorganized campaign into a wellrun, high-tech operation. They can do it all polling or hiring the pollster, molding a candidate s image, advising a candidate on his or her spouse s role, handling campaign logistics, managing payrolls, and so forth. Incumbents as well as challengers turn to professional consultants for such help. All this concern with public relations worries some observers of American politics. They fear a new era of politics in which the slick slogan and the image salesperson will dominate, an era when Madison Avenue will be more influential than Main Street. Most political scientists, however, conclude that such fears are overblown. Research has shown that campaign advertising can be a source of information about issues as well as about images. Thomas Patterson and Robert McClure examined the information contained in TV advertising and found it impressive. In fact, they concluded, viewers could learn more about candidates stands on the issues from watching their ads than from watching the nightly news. Most news coverage emphasizes where the candidates went, how big their

22 EDWA pgs 1/3/05 10:50 AM Page 279 The Impact of Campaigns 279 Television has been the primary way that candidates for national office have gotten out their messsage since about Here, President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush are shown being interviewed for a joint appearance on the CNN program Larry King Live during the 2004 campaign. crowds were, and other campaign details. Only rarely do the networks delve into where candidates stand on the issues. In contrast, political ads typically address issues; a study of 230,000 candidate ads that ran in 1998 found that spots that emphasized policy outnumbered those that emphasized personal image by a 6-to-1 ratio. 25 Most candidates apparently believe that their policy positions are a crucial part of their campaign, and they are willing to pay substantial sums to communicate them to voters. Candidates have much less control over the other aspect of the media, news coverage. News organizations seem to believe that policy issues are of less interest to voters than the campaign itself. The result is that news coverage is disproportionately devoted to campaign strategies, speculation about what will happen next, poll results, and other aspects of the campaign game. 26 Once a candidate has taken a policy position and it has been reported on, it becomes old news. The latest poll showing Smith ahead of Jones is thus more newsworthy in the eyes of the media. Republican media consultant Roger Ailes calls this his orchestra pit theory of American politics: If you have two guys on stage and one guy says, I have a solution to the Middle East problem, and the other guy falls in the orchestra pit, who do you think is going to be on the evening news? 27 The Impact of Campaigns Almost all politicians figure that a good campaign is the key to victory. Many political scientists, however, question the importance of campaigns. Reviewing the evidence, Dan Nimmo concluded, Political campaigns are less crucial in elections than most politicians believe. 28 For years, researchers studying campaigns have stressed that

23 EDWA pgs 1/3/05 10:50 AM Page Chapter Eight Campaigns and Voting Behavior How You Can Make a Difference Volunteering for Political Campaigns In order to change how government operates or to maintain a desired policy, you generally have to get involved. Personal involvement in politics and the political system is important. One way to do this is to volunteer on a political campaign. You may wish to help out at a local level by helping a candidate in a race for school board, city council, or mayor. For most local elections you can call the candidate yourself and offer your services. You may wish to work on a race for the state legislature. If you are interested in assisting a candidate for a major office, call the candidate s campaign headquarters and ask to talk with the volunteer coordinator. The campaigns for top tier political offices such as state governor, U.S. senator, U.S. congressperson, or president are generally huge operations that require the assistance of numerous volunteers. Candidates for these offices will usually have a big campaign organization somewhere in your state and maybe smaller campaign headquarters in regional cities. You can find these by calling the candidate s local party office and asking where the election headquarters is located and how to contact it. Then talk with the volunteer coordinator at headquarters. All political campaigns need volunteers, and campaign work is fun. You will meet all sorts of people from all over your city, your state, or the nation and make lots of new friends. You will do things like go door-to-door distributing campaign literature, put up yard signs, stuff envelopes, and answer telephones at campaign headquarters. You ll play an important role in helping elect someone who will work for your ideals. Many colleges and universities offer credit for campaign work. Ask at your school. You can be an intern on a campaign, do a useful bit for democracy, earn college credits, and maybe even get paid. What you can do: Call your local political party office (Democratic, Republican, Green, etc). Contact a candidate you support and volunteer your services. Contact your school s political science department to see whether you can receive internship credit for your work. selective perception The phenomenon that people often pay the most attention to things they already agree with and interpret them according to their own predispositions. campaigns have three effects on voters: reinforcement, activation, and conversion. Campaigns can reinforce voters preferences for candidates; they can activate voters, getting them to contribute money or ring doorbells as opposed to merely voting; and they can convert, changing voters minds. Five decades of research on political campaigns leads to a single message: Campaigns mostly reinforce and activate; only rarely do they convert. The evidence on the impact of campaigns points clearly to the conclusion that the best laid plans of campaign managers change very few votes. Given the millions of dollars spent on political campaigns, it may be surprising to find that they do not have a great effect. Several factors tend to weaken campaigns impact on voters: Most people pay relatively little attention to campaigns in the first place. People have a remarkable capacity for selective perception paying most attention to things they already agree with and interpreting events according to their own predispositions.

24 EDWA pgs 1/3/05 10:50 AM Page 281 Whether To Vote: A Citizen s First Choice 281 Factors such as party identification though less important than they used to be still influence voting behavior regardless of what happens in the campaign. Incumbents start with a substantial advantage in terms of name recognition and an established track record. Such findings do not mean, of course, that campaigns never change voters minds or that converting a small percentage is unimportant. In tight races, a good campaign can make the difference between winning and losing. As the campaign nears its end, voters face two key choices: whether to vote and, if they choose to, how to vote. The following sections investigate the ways that voters make these choices. Whether To Vote: A Citizen s First Choice Over two centuries of American electoral history include greatly expanded suffrage the right to vote. Virtually everyone over the age of 18 now has the right to vote. The two major exceptions concern noncitizens and convicted criminals. There is no federal requirement stating that voters must be citizens, and it was quite common in the nineteenth century for immigrants to vote prior to attaining citizenship. However, no state currently permits residents who are not citizens to vote. In contrast, state law varies widely when it comes to crime and voting: 46 states deny prisoners the right to vote, 32 states extend the ban to people on parole, and 10 states impose a lifetime ban on convicted felons. Interestingly, as the right to vote has been extended, proportionately fewer of those eligible have chosen to exercise that right. In the past 100 years, the 80 percent turnout in the 1896 election was the high point of electoral participation. In 2004, only 55 percent of the adult population voted in the presidential election, and in the 2002 midterm elections only 39 percent took part. Deciding Whether To Vote Realistically, when more than 100 million people vote in a presidential election, as they did in 2004, the chance of one vote affecting the outcome is very, very slight. Once in a while, of course, an election is decided by a small number of votes as was the case in Florida in It is more likely, however, that you will be struck by lightning during your lifetime than participate in an election decided by a single vote. Not only does your vote probably not make much difference to the outcome, but voting is somewhat costly. You have to spend some of your valuable time becoming informed, making up your mind, and getting to the polls. If you carefully calculate your time and energy, you might rationally decide that the costs of voting outweigh the benefits. Indeed, the most frequent response given by nonvoters in the 2000 Census Bureau survey on turnout was that they could not take time off from work or school that day. 29 Some scholars have therefore proposed that one of the easiest ways to increase American turnout levels would be to move Election Day to Saturday or to make it a holiday. 30 suffrage The legal right to vote, extended to African Americans by the Fifteenth Amendment, to women by the Nineteenth Amendment, and to people over the age of 18 by the Twentysixth Amendment. The Prepared Voter Kit

25 EDWA pgs 1/3/05 10:50 AM Page Chapter Eight Campaigns and Voting Behavior political efficacy The belief that one s political participation really matters that one s vote can actually make a difference. civic duty The belief that in order to support democratic government, a citizen should always vote. voter registration A system adopted by the states that requires voters to register well in advance of Election Day. Although a few states permit Election Day registration for presidential elections, advance registration dampens voter turnout. Motor Voter Act Passed in 1993, this act went into effect for the 1996 election. It requires states to permit people to register to vote at the same time they apply for a driver s license. Economist Anthony Downs, in his model of democracy, tries to explain why a rational person would ever bother to vote. He argues that rational people vote if they believe that the policies of one party will bring more benefits than the policies of the other party. 31 Thus people who see policy differences between the parties are more likely to join the ranks of voters. If you are an environmentalist and you expect the Democrats to pass more environmental legislation than the Republicans, then you have an additional incentive to go to the polls. On the other hand, if you are truly indifferent that is, if you see no difference whatsoever between the two parties you may rationally decide to abstain. Another reason why many people vote is that they have a high sense of political efficacy the belief that ordinary people can influence the government. Efficacy is measured by asking people to agree or disagree with statements such as I don t think public officials care much what people like me think. Those who lack strong feelings of efficacy are being quite rational in staying home on Election Day because they don t think they can make a difference. Yet even some of these people will vote anyway, simply to support democratic government. In this case, people are impelled to vote by a sense of civic duty. The benefit from doing one s civic duty is the long-term contribution made toward preserving democracy. Registering To Vote A century ago politicians used to say, Vote early and often. Largely to prevent corruption associated with stuffing ballot boxes, states adopted voter registration laws around the turn of the century, which require individuals to first place their name on an electoral roll in order to be allowed to vote. Although these laws have made it more difficult to vote more than once, they have also discouraged some people from voting at all. America s unique registration system is, in part, to blame for why Americans are significantly less likely to go to the polls than citizens of other democratic nations. Registration procedures currently differ from state to state. In sparsely populated North Dakota there is no registration at all, and in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Idaho, New Hampshire, and Maine voters can register on Election Day. Advocates of this user-friendly procedure are quick to point out that these states all ranked near the top in voter turnout in For many years, some states particularly in the South had burdensome registration procedures, such as requiring people to make a trip to their county courthouse during normal business hours. As a result of the 1993 Motor Voter Act, this is no longer the case. The Motor Voter Act made voter registration easier by requiring states to allow eligible voters to register by simply checking a box on their driver s license application or renewal form. Nevertheless, its impact on turnout has thus far been largely disappointing. Who Votes? When just over half the population votes, the necessity of studying nonvoters takes on added importance. Table 8.2 displays data regarding the turnout rates of various groups

26 EDWA pgs 1/3/05 10:50 AM Page 283 Whether To Vote: A Citizen s First Choice 283 Table 8.2 Reported Turnout Rate in 2000 by Social Groups (in Percents) Age and over 68 Education No HS diploma 31 High school 49 Some college 60 College 72 Gender Men 53 Women 56 Race White 56 African American 54 Hispanic citizen 45 Asian American 43 Marital Status Married 61 Single 45 Union Membership Member 65 Not member 53 Source: Authors analysis of 2000 U.S. Census Bureau survey through FERRETT ( in the 2000 presidential election. This information reveals numerous demographic factors that are related to turnout: Education. People with higher than average educational levels have a higher rate of voting than people with less education. Among all factors affecting turnout, this one is the most important. Highly educated people are more capable of discerning the major differences between the candidates. In addition, their educational training comes in handy in clearing the bureaucratic hurdles imposed by registration requirements. Age. Older people are far more likely to vote than younger people. Younger citizens are less likely to be registered, but even just analyzing turnout patterns among registered voters yields wide differences by age. For example, Georgia s secretary of state reported that of those on the registration rolls under 25 years of age only 22 percent voted in 2002 as compared to 68 percent among those over 65 years of age. 32 Race. African Americans and Hispanics are underrepresented among voters relative to their share of the population. This finding can largely be explained by their generally low levels of education. African Americans and Hispanics with high levels of education have a higher turnout rate than Whites with comparable educational achievement. Gender. In an earlier period many women were discouraged from voting, but today women actually participate in elections at a slightly higher rate than men. Marital status. People who are married are more likely to vote than those who are not. This pattern is true among all age categories and generally reflects the fact that married people are more tied into their community. Voter Turnout: Who Votes?

27 EDWA pgs 1/3/05 10:50 AM Page Chapter Eight Campaigns and Voting Behavior Young people have one of the lowest rates of election turnout. Music stars like P. Diddy have tried to change this by actively participating in events that encourage young people to vote. Why It Matters Youth Turnout Voter turnout rates in the United States have been declining for quite some time. The very low participation rate of young people has been one of the biggest reasons for this decline. Who votes matters not only because these individuals decide who wins elections, but also because politicians pay attention primarily to voters. The fact that so few young people vote means that politicians are not likely to pay too much attention to their opinions or to promote policies that will particularly help them. Mobility. People who have lived at the same address for a while also are more tied into their community, and hence more likely to vote. Those who have moved recently have to deal with the task of registering to vote at their new address, which, although easier due to the Motor Voter Act, still requires some effort. Union membership. Unions have long been active in the political process and often devote considerable resources to encouraging their members to vote. People who live in a household with a union member do indeed have higher than average turnout levels. These differences in turnout rates are cumulative. Possessing several of these traits (say, being elderly, well educated, and very religious) adds significantly to one s likelihood of voting. Conversely, being young, poorly educated, and not religious is likely to add up to a very low probability of voting. If you possess many of the demographic traits of nonvoters, then the interests of people like you are probably not drawing a great deal of attention from politicians regardless of whether you personally vote or not. Politicians listen far more carefully to groups with high turnout rates, as they know their fate may well be in their hands. Who votes does matter. How Americans Vote: Explaining Citizens Decisions A common explanation of how Americans vote one favored by journalists and politicians is that people vote because they agree more with the policy views of Candidate A than with those of Candidate B. Of course, the candidates have gone

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