Deck 6: Interest Groups and Lobbying

Question 1

Which of the following is not a description of an interest group?

A) Its members pursue a common goal.
B) It attempts to affect public policy.
C) Members seek to achieve their desired goals through political means.
D) It is usually made up of a large number of people.
E) It is typically active only at the national level of government.

Answer 1

E

Question 2

______ was the former Texas Speaker of the House who was indicted for taking an illegal gift from a law firm that specialized in collecting delinquent taxes for local governments.

A) "Gib" Lewis
B) "Pete" Laney
C) Bill Ratliff
D) Tom Craddick
E) Sam Rayburn

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Which of the following is the farmers' interest group that influenced the writing of the Texas Constitution of 1876?

A) the Grange
B) the 8F Group
C) EMILY's List
D) the Texas Natural Resource Council
E) the Texas Farm Bureau Association

Answer 3

A

Question 4

The largest and most effective public employee interest group in Texas is made up of

A) firefighters.
B) police officers.
C) teachers.
D) justices of the peace.
E) autoworkers.

Question 5

The 8F Crowd was

A) an influential cartel of political activists who wrote the Texas Constitution of 1876.
B) a loose but influential group of Texas businessmen.
C) the first Latino civil rights organization in Texas.
D) a group of corrupt politicians dependent on bribery during the early twentieth century.
E) a group of eight Florida businessmen who came to Texas hoping to get elected to the Texas legislature.

Question 6

Which of the following is not a reason that interest groups are useful to politicians?

A) Interest groups provide necessary information and expertise to politicians.
B) Campaign funding often comes from interest groups.
C) Interest groups provide politicians with an agenda on which they may run for office.
D) Interest groups can mobilize voters and mount publicity campaigns.
E) Interest groups can supply campaigns with workers.

Question 7

Which of the following groups have had notable political success by litigating in federal courts?

A) professional groups
B) public employee interest groups
C) civil rights groups
D) chemical company lobbyists
E) business lobbyists

Question 8

Bribery is

A) a common practice with lobbyists.
B) legal as long as the payoff is publicized.
C) a rare, but not unheard of, problem in Texas today.
D) most commonly offered in the form of steak dinners.
E) unheard of in Texas politics due to the stiff penalties involved.

Question 9

Which interest is not represented in a list of the top interest groups in Texas?

A) trial lawyers
B) the environment
C) the gas and oil industry
D) public employees
E) agriculture

Question 10

The practice of combining several individual campaign contributions into one larger contribution from a group in order to increase the group's impact is known as

A) bribery.
B) PAC-ing.
C) bundling.
D) soft money.
E) hard money.

Question 11

Which of the following is the best example of a public interest group?

A) the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund
B) the Texas Medical Association
C) Common Cause
D) Texans for Lawsuit Reform
E) the Texas Bar Association

Question 12

All of the following are benefits an interest group has over private citizens EXCEPT

A) interest groups have staffs with greater expertise than one person can have.
B) individuals often do not have the necessary time to lobby government.
C) interest groups have greater legitimacy with politicians than citizens do.
D) interest groups usually have access to more money and other material resources than individual citizens.
E) interest groups provide a way for individuals to pool money together to get more "bang for the buck."

Question 13

Lobbyists can do all of the following except

A) provide information to politicians.
B) write bills.
C) testify before legislative committees.
D) entertain politicians.
E) none-lobbyists can do all of the above.

Question 14

The Texas Medical Association is best described as what kind of interest group?

A) professional
B) pubic employee
C) public interest
D) ideological
E) civil rights

Question 15

Interest groups are often powerful in states

A) with a strong two-party rivalry.
B) dominated by one party.
C) that have a weak or nonexistent party system.
D) with powerful third parties.
E) with low voter turnout.

Question 16

Texas has ______ laws dealing with lobbying by former government officials.

A) no
B) numerous
C) weak
D) strong
E) two

Question 17

What did "Bo" Pilgrim do in 1989?

A) He distributed $10,000 checks to state senators while lobbying them on a bill.
B) He established the first political action committee devoted solely to Texas politics.
C) He united a number of food production companies to create a single-industry lobbying group.
D) He was convicted of bribing three Texas legislators with promises of free fried chicken for life.
E) He bought a number of votes on a controversial bill by offering legislators free turkeys for Thanksgiving.

Question 18

One important way for interest groups to gain access to those in Texas government is to employ ______ as lobbyists.

A) retired sports stars
B) political science majors
C) Republican campaign consultants
D) former legislators and government officials
E) celebrities

Question 19

Which of the following is not a common way for interest groups to gain access to politicians and policy makers?

A) hiring former politicians as lobbyists
B) spending money on entertaining politicians
C) building support on an issue with constituents
D) forming PACs that allow members to bundle large contributions to candidates
E) running for office themselves

Question 20

What was the problem Speaker Sam Rayburn identified with the "steak men" at the beginning of the twentieth century?

A) They were politicians who were in the pocket of the cattle industry.
B) They were legislators who would "sell" their votes on a bill for free steak dinners.
C) They were legislators who would attempt to cut all the meat out of the budgets.
D) They were lobbyists who Rayburn said were full of "bull."
E) They were legislators who were in the pocket of the meat-packing industry.

Question 21

Interest groups typically have more time, money, and expertise to offer politicians than do average citizens.

Question 22

Most PAC spending in Texas represents

A) business.
B) labor.
C) single-issue ideological organizations.
D) consumers.
E) agriculture.

Question 23

Gaining access to politicians through personal connections is a violation of Texas state laws.

Question 24

Individuals are most likely to successfully lobby government when they

A) are not challenged by powerful, organized interest groups.
B) form their own political action committee.
C) seek pardons or clemency.
D) limit their requests to personal issues.
E) write letters to legislators.

Question 25

Interest groups are limited to lobbying the legislature; they cannot lobby executive agencies or the courts.

Question 26

When individuals or interest groups take out ads concerning a campaign issue but do not tie them directly to any particular candidate, it is called

A) soft-money spending.
B) bundling.
C) issue advocacy.
D) direct advocacy.
E) hard-money spending.

Question 27

Entertaining politicians is one of the most critical ways for lobbyists to gain access.

Question 28

As in the U.S. Congress, most campaign contributions in Texas go to

A) incumbents.
B) supporters of business interests.
C) Republicans.
D) political parties.
E) Democrats.

Question 29

What is the function of EMILY's List?

A) It provides early campaign funding for female candidates.
B) It is the largest victims' rights group in Texas.
C) It is designed to help raise money for the Texas teachers' unions.
D) It is a PAC that raises money from the petrochemical industry.
E) It is an organization that lobbies for more government efforts to stop child abduction.

Question 30

Interest groups in Texas are not allowed to run paid advertisements in the media.

Question 31

Texas trial lawyers frequently ally with

A) the gas and oil industry.
B) pharmaceutical companies.
C) consumer interest groups.
D) public employee unions.
E) environmental groups.

Question 32

On average, incumbents in the Texas House of Representatives are able to fund-raise ______ challengers.

A) 50 percent more than
B) twice as much as
C) three times the amount of
D) five times as much as
E) ten times as much as

Question 33

Which of the following is not a reason for forming a PAC?

A) Candidates are more likely to notice a substantial contribution from a PAC than numerous small contributions from individuals.
B) Lobbyists who deliver substantial PAC money to a candidate can more likely gain access to that candidate.
C) A PAC is a way for an interest group to send a message to a candidate that it is willing to back with money.
D) A PAC can serve as a middleman to provide money to candidates that the PAC's members do not want to support publicly.
E) A PAC is allowed to donate unlimited amounts of money directly to a particular candidate.

Question 34

Which of the following is not a typical threat to an incumbent running for reelection?

A) scandal
B) the greater fund-raising opportunities of challengers
C) redistricting
D) controversial voting record
E) a well-funded challenger

Question 35

A private group that raises and distributes funds for use in election campaigns is called a(n)

A) interest group.
B) political action committee.
C) campaign revenue association.
D) advocacy association.
E) 8F crowd.

Question 36

What does it mean for an interest group to "get on the late train"?

A) The group's lobbyists are unable to gain access to key politicians until after all opposing lobbyists have been heard.
B) An interest group gives contributions after the election to a winning candidate the group had earlier opposed.
C) A PAC donates money for a candidate in the general election but not in the primaries.
D) An interest group picks up on an issue only after public-opinion polling shows a great deal of support.
E) The group donates money to a campaign that eventually loses the election.

Question 37

Lobbyists may gain access to legislators by building support for an issue among their constituents.

Question 38

There are no legal restrictions on lobbying by former Texas governors or legislatures.

Question 39

To avoid conflicts of interest, all lobbyists in Texas are required to represent only a single client.

Question 40

Which PACs spend the least amount of money in Texas elections?

A) single-issue PACs
B) labor unions
C) business groups
D) lawyers
E) consumer groups

Question 41

No large interest groups in Texas represent the environment.

Question 42

Not all interests are equally represented in Texas politics. Describe which interest groups have the most political clout and why. What are some interests that are not well represented in Texas, and why is this the case? What have been some practical effects of these differences in lobbying power?

Question 43

Spending on issue advocacy ads by PACs need not be reported by a candidate.

Question 44

Incumbents are most likely to receive large campaign contributions.

Question 45

Redistricting and scandal are the two greatest threats to an incumbent's electoral advantage.

Question 46

Describe some of the different types of interest groups operating in Texas. Which ones have been the most influential? What are some interests that have been underrepresented in Texas?

Question 47

It is vital for lobbyists to gain access to politicians and policy makers. Describe some of the ways in which interest groups and their representatives gain access in Texas politics. What are some of the potential abuses of this process?

Question 48

Campaign donations are one of the most important ways to influence in politics. Describe the role of interest-group money in politics. What are PACs, and what do they do? How can PACs shape elections?

Question 49

Some have accused interest groups and lobbyists of undue influence over Texas government. Describe some of the regulations and restrictions that the law has placed upon lobbyists and interest groups operating in Texas.

Question 50

Interest groups representing labor organizations dominate Texas politics.

Question 51

More money is spent in Texas by the communications industry than any other represented interest.

Question 52

PACs help interest groups bundle campaign donations.