1. Campaigns, Elections,
and the Media
Chapter 9

2. Why Run for Political Office?
 Logic of Elective Offices
 The higher the office, the more people are likely to run for it
 Ex. Not a lot turn out to run for McLennan Co. Justice of the Peace,
but a considerable number always turn out to run for Mayor of Waco
 Why do people run for president or high offices?
 Self-starters – people who voluntarily get involved in politics to
further their careers, programs, or in response to certain events
 Some run for office once or twice, some are long-term politicians
 Recruits – people already involved in politics who are recruited
by their parties to run for office

3. Primaries and Elections
 Primary Elections
 Election in which political parties choose their candidates for the
general election
 Presidential Primaries
 Statewide primary election of delegates to a political party’s
national convention, held to determine a party’s presidential
nominee
 General Election
 Election normally held on the first Tuesday in November that
determines who will fill various elected positions

4. Primary Elections Expanded
 Caucus
 Meeting of party members designed to select candidates and
propose policies
 Some states use this to select candidates for various offices
 Direct Primary
 Primary election in which voters decide party nominations by voting
directly for candidates
 Used often in state or local elections
 Indirect Primary
 Primary election in which voters choose convention delegates and
the delegates pick the party’s candidate in the general election
 Used almost exclusively in presidential elections

5. Primary Elections Expanded
 Closed Primary
 Type of primary in which the voter is limited to choosing
candidates of the party of which he/she is a member
 Basically, voters must declare party affiliation when they register
to vote or at the election site
 Open Primary
 Primary in which any registered voter can vote without declaring
party affiliation
 However, they must vote for candidates of only one party

6. The Electoral College
 In presidential elections, people do not directly vote for the
president and vice president
 Actually voting for electors who will cast their ballot in the
Electoral College
 Electors – members of the Electoral College, which selects the
president and vice president; each state’s electors are chosen in
each presidential election according to state laws
 Number of electors
 538 equal to 100 senators, 435 House members, and 3 electors
for the District of Columbia

7. The Electoral College
 Candidates who receive a majority of the electoral votes
(270) are certified as president-elect and vice president-elect
in January
 What if no candidate receives a majority of the electoral
vote?
 The House selects from the presidential candidates with the
three highest number of votes (each state has one vote; decided
by a plurality of each state delegation)
 The Senate determines the vice president in a choice between
the two candidates with the most votes (each senator has one
vote)

8. How to Win a Campaign
 Hire a Political Consultant
 Paid profession hired to devise a campaign strategy and manage a
campaign
 Thinks up a campaign theme, oversees advertising, chooses
campaign colors, and the candidate’s official portrait
 Capturing Votes
 Win all the votes of your party’s supporters
 Convince a majority of the independent’s that you’re the better
choice
 Attempt to gain a few votes from the opposition party
 It’s all about image
 Candidate visibility, the message, and the campaign strategy

9. How to Win a Campaign
 Candidate visibility
 Name recognition
 If you’re already known and part of a major party; keep up the good work
 If you’re a third party candidate, you have to seriously undermine the major
party candidates
 Opinion Polls and Focus Groups
 Everyone relies on them during election season; candidates have
private polls ran to make sure they have a remote chance of winning
 Focus Groups – small group of individuals who are led in discussion
by a professional consultant in order to gather opinions on and
responses to candidates and issues
 Recent campaign focuses: “soccer moms,” “Wal-Mart shoppers,” and
“NASCAR dads”

10. Financing the Campaign
 Total Spending for 2007-2008: $4.14 billion
 Presidential Candidates -- $2.4 billion
 Avg. Senate incumbent -- $13 million
 Avg. Senate challenger -- $5 million
 Avg. House incumbent -- $1.7 million
 Avg. House challenger -- $700,000
 Who funds candidates?
 Candidates, their families, borrowed money, or contributions from
individuals and Political Action Committees
 A committee set up by and representing a corporation, labor union, or
special interest group; PACS raise money and give campaign donations

11. Regulating Campaign Financing
 Campaign Finance Regulation
 Federal Corrupt Practices Acts – series of acts passed by
Congress in an attempt to limit and regulate the size and sources
of contributions and expenditures in political campaigns
 Hatch Act – passed in 1939 to restrict the political activities of
government employees
 Prohibited political groups from spending more than $3 million in any
campaign
 Restricted individual contributions to a campaign committee to $5,000

12. Regulating Campaign Financing
 Campaign Finance Regulation
 Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971
 Replaced all past laws
 No limit on overall spending, but restricted the amount that could be
spent on mass media advertising
 Disclosure required of all contributors who spent over $100 in political
campaigns
 Provided public financing for presidential primaries and general
elections
 Established the Federal Election Commission (FEC)
 Overall, it attempted to limit the influence of labor unions and
corporations

13. Types of Contributions
 Hard Money – money donated by individuals and parties to
campaigns and PACs; strictly regulated by the FEC
 Soft Money – contributions unregulated by federal or state law;
usually given to parties and PACs to help fund general party
activities
 Outlawed after 2002
 Independent Expenditures – non-regulated contributions from
PACs, organizations, and individuals
 Funds may be spent on advertising or other campaign activates so
long as those expenditures are not coordinated with those of a
candidate

14. TV’s Influence on the Political
Process
 Opinion: TV News is superficial compared to newspapers
and magazines
 Fact: TV is technically limited by time; stories must be
reported in only a few minutes
 How are political stories chosen?
 Well-constructed storylines garner viewers
 The story should be short, have a clear plot, and pictures
 In the extreme, sound bites are used to immediately have an impact on
the viewer
 Sound bites – brief, memorable comment that can easily fit into
news broadcasts

15. TV’s Influence on the Political
Process
 Negative Advertising
 “You shouldn’t vote for Candidate B because …” “Vote for Candidate
A in November
 LBJ’s Daisy Ad is a classic example of negative advertising
 Does negative advertising work?
 The public claims to not like it
 Consultants claim it works
 Negative advertising can backfire
 Studies show that the attacking candidate and the candidate who is
attacked can be viewed negatively by the public
 This helps boost the chances of a third candidate

16. TV’s Influence on the Political
Process
 Management of News Coverage
 Coverage by the news media is free
 Candidates needs to make sure the coverage takes place and
hopefully convince reporters that their interpretation of events is
true (a.k.a. “spin”)
 Spin – an interpretation of campaign events or election results that is
favorable to the candidate’s campaign strategy
 To successfully do this, candidates often hire spin doctors
 Political campaign adviser who tries to convince journalists of the truth
of a particular interpretation of events

17. Bias in the Media
 What is Bias?
 An inclination or preference that interferes with impartial judgment
 Liberal Bias in the Media Argument
 Mainstream media has a long history of liberal bias
 Some argue that it comes naturally to reporters
 Stephen Colbert – “Reality has a well-known liberal bias.”
 Conservative Bias in the Media Argument
 Mainstream media has a well-known conservative bias, especially
when dealing with economic issues
 Talk radio increasingly conservative
 “image bites” (charts and graphs) more in favor of Republican views

18. Bias in the Media
 Drama Theory
 Mainstream media is really biased towards stories that involve
conflict and drama (often takes a liberal bent)
 Loser Theory
 Mainstream media is really biased towards political losers
 The more a candidate falls behind in a race, the more negative
coverage they receive
 Election of 2008 a prime example
 Is bias just a fixture of the media in general?

19. Threats to Traditional Media
 Blogging
 Regular update of one’s ideas on a specific website
 Politicians have readily taken advantage of blogging
 Facebook, Twitter, MySpace all incorporate forms of blogging
 Podcasting
 Method of distributing multimedia files, such as audio or video
files, for downloading onto mobile devices or personal computers
 YouTube is a prime example
 Candidates in the 2008 and 2010 election cycle heavily relied on
outlets like YouTube and other forms of podcasting to reach
voters