Essay on Campaign Spending

The author, V. O. Key, states the results of a survey that shows that voters tend to vote for people who vote for candidates that will help them financially. He also states that people tend to vote for a certain party’s candidate because of their ties to the party. Key then declares that one can predict a person’s vote based on their personality and attributes. Key also shows that although these behaviors show strangeness, the voters have great importance to politics. Key says that the voters’ behavior has importance as it helps candidates discover the nature of the voters’ interests to try gain an advantage. Finally, Key states that voters behave as well as possible, considering the possibilities of other

The right of free speech granted to all citizens in the first amendment, the necessity of funding expensive political campaigns, and the fact that small donations make a candidate responsive to the needs of their constituents, all make any restrictions on campaign financing unneeded and onerous. Congress should strike down any bills attempting to reform this essential part of the U.S. election process. Any further restrictions on donations to political campaigns will prove detrimental to the United States functioning system of elections by limiting individuals’ freedom of speech, making our candidate’s campaigns underfunded and unresponsive to the needs of the American people.

‘Despite several attempts to regulate campaign finance, money increasingly dominates the U.S. Electoral process and is the main factor contributing to a candidates success’ Discuss (30 marks)

Over the years Campaigning in the U.S. has changed drastically because of technological advances, the internet, social media, and the real-time information sharing across the globe. One study suggest that over the years, examining 2000, 2004, 2008, and 2012, political advertising has become more negative. The Wesleyan Media Project’s charts states and 2004 election 45 percent of the ads were negative, where in 2012 about 65 percent of the ads were negative.1 There are many speculations on why these negative ads are increasing with every election, but one fact is that campaigns can use negativity to bring attention to a certain topic and sometimes benefit from the free media coverage if the controversy is popular enough.

Fundraising success correlates strongly with electoral success. In 2002, 95 percent of House winners raised more than their opponents. In 2004, more than 95 percent of House winners outspent their opponents. (4 “Money Is the Victor in 2002 Midterm Elections,” Center for Responsive Politics, Nov. 6, 2002. 5 “2004 Election Outcome: Money Wins,” Center for Responsive Politics, Nov. 3,

The Democratic and Republican presidential nominees for 1999 raised an astounding 126 million to finance their campaigns in the primaries (Godfrey). The U.S. national political parties raised a record 107.2 million dollars in soft money contributions in 1999 (Campaign Finance Reform). During the 1995-96 elections, public citizens estimated that an astounding 150 million dollars was spent on "phony" issue ads designed to support or oppose congressional and presidential candidates (Campaign Finance Reform). This outrageous influx of money into congressional and presidential campaigns has placed a blanket of corruption and injustice over our nation’s elections. With the rise of campaign corruption, many

With the campaign contribution, money plays a major role in the partisan elections. It leads to long ballots causing problems for citizens in terms of elections. Voters are able to partake in the straight

     Rather than government providing millions of dollars for the campaign and putting harsh restricts on individual donations, I believe that the limits should not be put on the American people but on the candidates themselves. Spending on the campaign has gotten out of control within the last decade. Millions of taxpayer dollars are being spend on mobile campaigns, advertisements, and media exposure. This funding could easily go towards other areas of society, benefiting the very people that the candidates wish to govern. Rather than directing negative attention, I believe that candidates should reach out to the public to gain support. Campaigning for presidency should not be about winning or who raises the most money. Presidency should be about protecting and caring for the American people. The conduct of campaigns should be monitored in order to limit spending and to prevent negative advertising towards opposite candidates.

Hypothesis 1: Voters with higher education (which generally results in higher household incomes) are more likely to vote.

politics and its effect on elections and public policy. This site allows me to see the numeric value for individuals and corporations who donated to a specific presidential candidate. I will have to allow for the fact that several corporations and individuals donated to multiple candidates within the same party. My goal is to both examine donations given to parties and to specific candidates to allow for a more complete measurement. I also must keep in mind that some donations will be under the names of companies and businesses whose leaders may receive a cabinet position. I will measure my independent variable by a scale of 0-200 in dollars, thousands. Again, I am choosing this coding as it is done by Herberlig and Larson (2007). These dollar ranges encompass the majority of the donations given by individuals or cooperation’s to specific parties, thus a higher score would theoretically mean a higher chance that an individual will be chosen for a cabinet appointment. Meaning, there should be a positive correlation between the dependent, the nominees, and the independents, the nominees who did and the campaign donations. There should be a negative correlation among nominees who show low campaign donations and those that did not get

Doherty discovers that candidates visit states most frequently with the most population. These states present fundraising advantages. However, Doherty

The voters are the key to the politicians success in the presidential campaigning process. The voters will only vote for a candidate that will help benefit their needs. In many ways the surroundings will affect who the voters will vote for.

“Twenty-first-century election campaigns are structure to garner the most favorable media exposure reaching the largest number of prospective supporters, with the greatest degree of candidate control over the message”. (Dunaway & Graber 2009. Pg. 315) Media in regards to political advertising is much more narrower. Some candidates are primarily interested in voters who preference the outcome of the race instead of the process of the election. A great example is President Obama in 2008, had little interest in any media markets in California because he expected to win by a comfortable

     When candidates develop a plan of attack for campaign advertising, they tend to aim for at least four types of commercials. One form or type of commercial is those which play on the fears of countrymen. Fear

rate so high. Because the party is much more likely to spend the soft money in places