POLI 1100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 24: Attack Ad, Campaign Finance Reform In The United States, Russ Feingold
22 May 2018
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Read American Difference Chapter 8
I. Nominations
a. Closed: only party members can select
b. Open: independents and party members
c. Blanket: all candidates of every party are on one ballot.
d. Way states schedule affects winner. Every tie a adidate gets poits for iig
primary. But states get to schedule primaries whenever they want. So states have the
most incentive to go right away. Front loading. When you have momentum, you have
more donations and tv attention. Need a lot of money too.
i. Most of the time candidates without a lot of money have a hard time navigating
system. You have to campaign simultaneously 6-7 states. And a lot of these
states are rural.
ii. Front loading: couple of nominatinos that unexpectedly stretched out. Obama
and Clinton (until June). GOP nomination in 2016.
iii. Trup did’t hae a lot of oey i the oiatio. Differet.
II. Attracting party voters and swing voters
a. Party voters: strong psychological attachment to party. Want to energize this base.
b. Swing voters: about a third of the electorate. People who switch a lot. Want to convince
them you are the right candidate.
III. Oppo research
a. Opposition research.
b. Finding dirt.
c. Every candidate does research on opponent.
d. Does’t all oe out at oe—used strategically. Save for when polls are really tight.
IV. Issues
a. Valence: issue that everyone can agree on.
b. Position: an issue that the candidates disagree on.
c. Wedge: issue that drives a wedge between other parties issue. Divide people within
same party.
d. Issue ownership
V. Media
a. Negative advertising: candidates spend tons of money on advertising. Buying ad time.
Choose to go negative. Attack ad vs contrast ad.
i. Attack ad: directly attacking other candidate. Very stretched usually. Faces are
darkened.
ii. Contrast ad: says I am candidate that believes this, other candidates believes
that. Negative, but have a little truth.
iii. Contrast ad and attack ad are very similar. Voters respond to these ads
differently. Negative ads that are contrast: voters learn more than positive ads.
Attack ads make people not want to participate and turned off from politics.
b. Debates: debates are on tv and visual makes a big difference. Candidates want to ty and
get free media from this. But prole ith free edia is you are’t i control of it.
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