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81 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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In 1960, JFK announced he was running for President ____ days before the first primary vs In 2008, Obama announced he was running for President ____ days before the first primary |
JFK - 66 days Obama - 332 days |
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In 2014, two big PACs created about Hillary were called... |
"Ready for Hillary" - Super pac created Jan 2014 to build support "Stop Hillary" - PAC created in 2014 also |
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Who was the early front runner for the Democratic Invisible Primaries in 2007 that didn't secure the nomination? |
Hillary Clinton |
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What is the name of the Republican dinner held in August of the year before the election where potential candidates give speeches? |
Iowa Straw Poll |
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What is the name of the Democrat dinner held in November of the year before the election where potential candidates give speeches?
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Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner |
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Which Democrat candidate was put in the spotlight for the first time by the Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner in 2008? |
Obama |
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Which 2012 Republican invisible primary candidate forgot the name of the 3rd department he wanted to shut down? |
Rick Perry |
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Which 2012 Republican invisible primary candidate suffered from the extra scrutiny his popularity brought and why? |
Herman Cain - Scandals came to light Eg - Affairs and sexual harassment allegations |
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Which outsider candidates have secured nominations in recent years who wouldn't have been the party's first choice? |
Trump, Obama - The primary process opens up the process to outsider candidates |
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How many candidates appeared on at least one ballot in the 2012 Republican Primaries? |
19 candidates - The primary process allows voters to choose from a large range of candidates |
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What percentage of eligible voters voted in the 2016 primaries? |
28.5% |
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What was the turnout in the final 9 Republican Primaries after Trump had secured the nomination (2016)? |
8.4% |
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Who was the first major candidate to announce his candidacy for the 2016 Republican Primaries and did he secure the nomination? |
Ted Cruz ( no he didn't)
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Primaries can lead to bitter personal battles. For example _________ and ___________ |
Donald Trump and Ted Cruz H Clinton and Barrack Obama |
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Primaries are held in states such as ________ |
New York, Texas, Michigan, Oregon, California etc |
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Caucuses are held in states such as ________ |
Alaska, Minnesota etc |
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In 1976, ___% of delegates had been chosen by March 2nd vs In 2008, ___% of delegates had been chosen by March 2nd |
1976 - 10% 2008 - 70% ((Front loading)) |
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In 2012, there were originally 7 major candidates in the Republican Primaries. After Iowa and New Hampshire, ____ of the 7 had dropped out |
3 of the 7 had dropped out |
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In 2012, ___ states voted after Romney had already won the required delegate count |
14 states |
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In 2016, ___ states held their primaries on Super Tuesday |
11 states |
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2008, ___ Republican primaries left after nominee was decided vs ___ Democrat primaries left after the nominee was decided |
19 Republican primaries left after nominee was decided 0 Democrat Primaries left after the nominee was decided - they all counted |
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In 2012, during the Primaries Romney moved to the right on _________ saying he favoured "______ ___________". Why did he do this? |
Romney moved to the right on immigration saying he favoured "self deportation".
He did this to secure the nomination as Primaries tent to attract more ideological voters (higher proportion of white male voters at primaries) |
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Why was this a problem for Romney once he'd secured the nomination? |
After the primaries he found himself unable to appeal to centrist voters |
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In 2012, during the primaries what did Newt Gingrich accuse Romney of doing which Obama used against him once he secured the nomination? |
Bankrupting companies |
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Balancing the ticket: Explain the differences between John McCain and Sarah Palin (2008 Republican nominees). Include: -Age -Gender -Political leanings -Faith |
McCain - 72 years old, male, centre right, reluctant to talk about faith Palin - 44 years old, female, staunch conservative, Evangelical Christian |
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In 2008 the Republicans launched the ____________________ website to collect public suggestions for the party platform |
www.gop.com/2008platform |
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In 2008, Democrats also held "__________ ___ ________" events in homes, local churches and coffee shops |
"Listening to America"
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Pence was announced as Trump's running mate ____ days before the National Covention |
3 days before |
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_____ _______ refused to endorse Trump at the RNC, telling the audience to "____ ____ _________" |
Ted Cruz refused to endorse Trump, telling the audience to "vote your conscience" |
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In 2016, despite losing the EC, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by ______ votes |
2.9 million votes |
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________ + ________ = Number of EC votes per state |
HOR + Senate = Number of EC votes per state |
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Alaska has ___ EC votes California has ___ EC votes |
Alaska has 3 EC votes
California has 55 EC votes |
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How many faithless electors were there in 2016? How many of those were Republican and how many were Democrats? |
7 faithless electors - 2 Republican and 5 Democrat - One of the faithless Democrat electors voted for Bernie Sanders |
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___ of the 50 states award their EC votes using a 'winner takes all' system |
48 of the 50 states |
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In California 2012, Obama won __% of the popular vote but received all 55 of the EC votes |
Obama won 60% of the popular vote |
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What method do the other 2 states use to distribute their EC votes? How does it work? |
The Congressional district method - the winner of each congressional district is given a vote then the other two votes go to the overall person with the most received votes. |
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Which two states use the congressional district method? |
Maine and Nebraska Nebraska - 3 congressional districts. In 2008, Obama received 1 of the 5 votes |
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Over ___ million of the people who voted for Obama in 2012 didn't have to |
Over 3 million of the people who voted for Obama in 2012 didn't have to (he would have won anyway)
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So many votes are wasted that technically it's possible for a candidate to win the election with only ___% of the popular vote |
22% of the popular vote |
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Small states are over represented in the EC. For example: - Alaska should only have __ EC vote based on its population size, yet it has __ - California should have __ EC votes but only has __ |
- Alaska should only have 1 EC vote based on its population size, yet it has 3
- California should have 65 EC votes but only has 55 - Vote in Alaska worth more than a vote in California |
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Swing states: Visits from Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates (2012) 2012 - Michigan was visited ____ by ____ _____ vs Ohio visited ___ times by Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates |
2012 - Michigan was visited once by Paul Ryan vs Ohio visited 73 times by Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates
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How many states held no campaign stops in 2012? |
38 states held no campaign stops in 2012
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In 2012, Obama spent $______million on TV ads. ___ % of that was spent in just ___ states |
In 2012, Obama spent $314.8 million on TV ads. 99.6% of that was spent in just 10 states
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Similarly, Romney spent ____% of his TV ad money in just 10 states |
99.9% |
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How many campaign visits did California (55 EC votes) and Texas (38 EC votes) have in 2012? |
None |
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1992, Ross Perot (Independent) won ____% of the popular vote yet 0 EC votes
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18.9% |
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How many states have passed laws to punish faithless electors? |
29 states |
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Which states use the congressional district method for presidential elections? |
Maine and Nebraska |
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What is the National Vote Interstate Compact? |
Where states voluntarily agreed to pledge their electors to the winner of the national popular vote. The agreement only goes into effect once enough states have agreed to provide an absolute majority (270 electors). |
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How many states to date have signed the National Vote Interstate Compact? (as of feb 2017) |
165 electoral votes have been been signed over currently, including California and New York |
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How much money was spent on campaign finance in the 2008 election? |
$5.29 billion |
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Federal Elections Act (1971) |
Required candidates, political parties and PACs to report all donations over $100. Enforced spending limits for candidates and family members ($50,000 Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates). Also set caps on TV advertising |
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Revenue Act (1971) |
Candidates could receive $20m in public funds as long as they don't accept private donations |
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What year was the Federal Elections Campaign Act in? |
1974 |
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Federal Elections Campaign Act (1974) |
Introduced the FEC to regulate and enforce campaign donation laws. Also limited donations from individuals and PACs
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What year was the landmark ruling Buckley vs Valeo in?
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1976 |
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Buckley vs Valeo |
Senator Buckley argued that the spending limits violated his 1st amendment rights. The SC ruled with him, dictating that Congress cannot limit how much candidates can spend on their campaigns. However, Congress upheld spending limits for candidates who voluntarily agreed to public funds. SC also upheld restrictions on contribution disclosure rules |
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Express advocacy |
Clearly calling for the defeat or election of a particular candidate (CAN be regulated) |
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Issue advocacy |
Ads attempting to educate the public on a particular issue - not using words such as "vote for" (CANNOT be regulated) |
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Political parties took advantage of the issue advocacy loophole and by 1996, what percentage of issue ads named a particular candidate? |
90% |
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What year was the Federal Elections Campaign Act passed in? |
1979 |
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Federal Election Campaign Act (1979) |
Allowed individuals to give unlimited donations to parties, as long as the money wasn't directly used for elections, and instead for administrative costs |
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What did the Federal Election Campaign Act (1979) create? |
The Federal Election Campaign Act created two types of donations: - Hard money - for campaigns, regulated, limited - Soft money - for party building, unregulated, unlimited |
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What year was the Bi-partisan Campaign Reform Act passed in? |
2002 |
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Bi-partisan Campaign Reform Act (2002)
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Tried to solve the issue of PACs, soft money and issue ads: Act banned national party committees from raising soft money and Banned labour unions and corporations from funding "electioneering communications" (defined as any TV or radio ad aired within 60 days of a general election or 30 days of a primary which names a candidate) |
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What year was the outcome of the SC case 'McConnell vs Federal Election Commission' decided? |
2003 |
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McConnell vs Federal Election Commission (2003)
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SC upheld the majority of the Bi-Partisan campaign Reform Act
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What are 527 groups? |
Emerged in 2003-4 election cycle, can accept unlimited funds but must disclose donors, not regulated by the FEC as they focus on issue advocacy |
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What are 501(c)4 groups |
Emerged in the 2007-8 election cycle. "Social welfare groups" that must spend the majority of their time on non political activities. However, they are allowed to keep their donors anonymous |
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What year was the outcome of the SC case 'Citizens United vs FEC' decided? |
2010 |
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Citizens United vs FEC (2010)
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x |
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What's the difference between PACs and super pacs? |
PACs - able to accept limited donations from individuals SuperPACs - Can accept unlimited funds from corporations, individuals and trade unions but cannot donate directly to candidates - they can instead spend on tv ads |
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How much was raised by superPACs for the 2012 election cycle? |
1,310 superpacs raised $828 million |
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What's the name of the largest superpac of the 2012 election cycle and how much did it raise for which candidate? |
SuperPAC "Restore our future" - spent $142 million supporting Romney |
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Of the $828m raised in 2012, the top 1% of donors donated what percentage of the money? |
68% of the money was donated by the top 1% of donors |
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McCutcheon vs FEC (2014) |
Struck down caps limiting the total amount an individual could donate to different federal campaigns / parties over a 2 year period. However, decision left the limit of contributions to a single candidate by a single donor ($2600) |
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In 2008, ______ was the first Presidential candidate to reject public financing to avoid spending limits. |
Obama |
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As he rejected public financing to avoid spending limits, Obama raised much more//less than McCain |
More |
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What is "America Crossroads"? |
A conservative superPAC |
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In 2012, America Crossroads spent $____million supporting candidates in ___ election races. Yet only ___% of the money spent was on candidates who went on to win the election |
In 2012, America Crossroads spent $104 million supporting candidates in 19 election races. Yet only 1.3% of the money spent was on candidates who went on to win the election
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Which proposition legalised marijuana in California? |
Proposition 64 (Nov 2016) |
