A.P. U.S. Government

What

A.P. U.S. Government

When

5/2/2018

Where

A.P. U.S. Government

Classwork:

EVEN BLOCK TODAY. Students discussed the Presidency test, and continued working on the Judicial document discussion.

A.P. U.S. GOV Review: Nominations, Campaigns, and Elections

1)      The campaign to receive the nomination for president includes: the primary route, the party caucus, and the nominating convention.

2)      “Invisible primary”: first stage of the primary season; the period of time between a candidate’s announcement that s/he is running for president and the day the first primary votes are cast. The “front-runner” in the invisible primary is the candidate who raises the most money.

3)      Current start-up fee for presidential races has been estimated at $100 million dollars.

4)      FYI $$$: When all was said and done, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, the two major party candidates in 2012, spent close to $1.12 billion -- not counting the millions more spent by the parties and outside groups. Overall the presidential race cost $2.6 billion in the 2012 cycle.

5)      Early primary states: Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary.

6)      Second stage of the campaign is the primary season.

7)      “front-loading”: a primary calendar created by the Democrats in 2004 where each week (beginning in January) primaries were held instead of being spread out further apart as in previous elections.

8)      “Super Tuesday”: refers to the Tuesday in February or March of a presidential election year when the greatest number of states hold primary elections to select delegates to national conventions at which each party's presidential candidates are officially nominated. More delegates can be won on Super Tuesday than on any other single day of the primary calendar; accordingly, candidates seeking the presidency traditionally must do well on this day to secure their party's nomination.

9)      Final stage of the primary season: is the nominating convention held by each party wherein the candidate is officially selected as the party nominee for the general election. This is really a formality as contrasted with the way candidates were selected by their party for the general election before direct primaries existed (beginning in the early 20^th century). “Direct primaries” is the current system in which “the people” select the nominee. Before the direct primary system began a candidate was selected to run in the general election by the party leaders at the nominating convention.

10)  Nominating Conventions for each major party: really a piece of grand theater or pep rally to ‘whip up” the party’s base. Key components of the nominating convention are: the adopting of the party’s platform, the keynote speech (Barrack Obama made the speech in 2004 and instantly became a “star” in the Democratic Party) the nominating and acceptance speeches of the candidates for Pres. and V.P. After the nominating conventions, a candidate will usually get a “convention bounce” (a temporary increase in positive polling results).

11)  “Proportional representation” in the primaries: where delegates are awarded to a candidate based upon the percentage of the vote the candidate receives in the primary. Proportional delegate voting is used primarily by the Democratic Party, but in a few states the Republican Party does too, THOUGH the system for Republicans is mainly a “winner-take-all” system.

12)  In 1968 Democratic nominating Convention in Chicago: riots in Chicago made the Democratic party seem as if it was not unified. Also, there was a feeling that there were not enough minorities and women allowed to participate in the convention. AS a RESULT, the McGovern-Fraser Commission was created.

13)  McGovern-Fraser Commission: the report recommended uniformity for the delegate selection process in the primaries with an emphasis on minority, women, and youth representation. As a result there has been a dramatic increase in minority and women delegates in the Democratic primary process, AND gone were the days of smoke-filled rooms where party leaders picked the presidential candidate and states moved to primaries as a means of delegate selection and thus candidate selection. ALSO, the commission created a category known as “Superdelegates” (i.e. elected leaders in the party who cast 15% of the delegate vote for a candidate to get the Democratic nomination…remember Barrack Obama beat out Hillary Clinton for the 2008 nomination by getting the Superdelegates vote when neither candidate had a majority of delegates at the end of the primaries)…note: the Republican Party does not have superdelgates and the make-up of the delegates to their convention is not as diverse.

14)  How does a Presidential Nominee select a Vice President as his/her “running mate”? often the decision is made to “balance the ticket” (i.e. regional considerations; considerations in terms of a certain type of strength such as foreign policy expertise…Bill Clinton broke the rule of choosing a candidate to balance the ticket when he chose fellow Southerner Al Gore, but it worked out.

15)  270 electoral votes needed to win in the General Election!

16)  “Swing states” or “battleground states” or “purple states”: states that could go either Republican or Democrat, but are too close to call. This is where the candidates need to focus and fight.

17)  2000 election debacle: discrepancies because of voting machine problems caused a recount, since Gore was behind Bush by about 525 popular votes. Loooooong story short: The Bush campaign took the Gore Campaign to SCOTUS in Bush v Gore, whereupon SCOTUS ruled that the recount be stopped and thus Bush got all of Florida’s electoral votes which gave him the election and the presidency.

18)  Presidential and Vice presidential debates draw large audiences as the general election nears the end.

19)  Democratic Party’s base: organized labor (i.e. labor unions), African-Americas, Jews, and Hispanics.

20)  Republican Party’s base: white men, evangelicals, people who earn more than $100,000, senior citizens, and those living in rural areas.

21)  Next important step for the candidates and their parties: Get Out the Vote!!!

22)  Early voting: an extremely important way to “Get-Out-the-Vote”; 33 states allow early voting (TN included) and 30% of the voters in those states cast votes by mail or in person before Election Day.

23)  Funding of campaigns has skyrocketed, mainly because buying media ads and doing direct mailings is so expensive, but also polling costs and staff salaries as well..

24)  How do candidates raise money? Small individual donations, internet fund-raising (e.g. Barrack Obama’s incredibly astute use of emails, text messages, and YouTube videos used to communicate with supporters).

25)  PACs (i.e. Political Action Committees): raise millions of dollars. Some of the most prominent PACs are: the National Rifle Association, the National Education Association,  the Teamsters Union, and the American Medical Association.

26)  Federal Election Campaign Act of 1974 (FECA):  limited the amounts of money individuals, political action committees (PACs) and political parties could give to candidates in federal, i.e. House, Senate and presidential, elections. established the FEC (Federal Election Commission) to oversee and enforce campaign contribution laws.

27)  “hard money”: Money given directly to political parties for the purpose of supporting candidates for federal office is called “hard money” and it is regulated by the FEC.   

28)  “soft money”: "Soft money" contributions are contributions that are given to political parties for purposes other than supporting candidates for federal office. Unlike hard money contributions, there are no limits on the amounts of soft money that can be given by individuals to political parties. Moreover, while labor unions and corporations are prohibited from giving money to candidates for federal office, they can give soft money to parties. While soft money cannot be used by political parties to support federal candidates, it can be used for "party building" activities. These efforts have become controversial because they are almost indistinguishable from party support for federal candidates. For example, a political party would have to use hard money contributions, which are limited and regulated, to pay for a television advertisement that explicitly encouraged voters to vote for a specific candidate. If the ad, however, simply showed a particular candidate and then encouraged voters to support that candidate's party, soft money could be used to pay for it.

Buckley v. Valeo (1976), was a landmark case in American campaign finance law. In it the Supreme Court of the United States struck down on First Amendment grounds several provisions in the 1974 Amendments to the Federal Election Campaign Act. The most prominent portions of the case struck down limits on spending in campaigns, but upheld the provision limiting the size of individual contributions to campaigns. The Court also narrowed, and then upheld, the Act's disclosure provisions, and struck down (on separation of powers grounds) the make-up of the Federal Election Commission, which as written allowed Congress to directly appoint members of the Commission, an executive agency.

An independent expenditure, in elections in the United States, is a political campaign communication that expressly advocates for the election or defeat of a clearly identified candidate that is not made in cooperation, consultation or concert with or at the request or suggestion of a candidate, candidate’s authorized committee or political party.^[1] If a candidate, his/her agent, his/her authorized committee, his/her party, or an "agent" for one of these groups becomes "materially involved", the expenditure is not independent.

Political media priming is "the process in which the media attend to some issues and not others and thereby alter the standards by which people evaluate election candidates

Gatekeeping: is the process through which the media decide what information to include in their publications, internet sites, or television programs.

Watchdog: The role of a watchdog journalist can be that of a protector or guardian. The role of a watchdog journalist as a guardian is to supply the citizens with information they must have "to prevent the abuse of power" by the government or an individual in the government, or to fact-check candidates in an election. Watchdog journalism can lead to the successful resignation of power holders. A well-known example is the reporting of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein on the Watergate scandal for The Washington Post and the subsequent resignation of U.S. president Richard Nixon

GO TO THE FOLLOWING AP WEBPAGE AND REVIEW FRQS, Scoring Guidelines and Sample Responses:

http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/members/exam/exam_information/2086.html

ALSO: For Today’s Review Focus on the following FRQs on the AP Website:

2005: #4

2013: #4A

Homework: