Deck 6: Interest Groups and Lobbying

Question 1

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.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Texans Advocating for Meaningful Student Assessment enabled people to join together and seek policy change in a number of ways EXCEPT by

A) providing like-minded individuals an organizational structure for discussing problems and offering solutions.
B) providing a vehicle for working with other organizations like the Texas Association of School Administrators, who were also concerned with testing.
C) raising money to help pay for their efforts.
D) educating the public and policy makers alike about the problems of testing across the elementary and secondary curriculum.
E) successfully removing the end-of-year course exams.

Answer 2

E

Question 3

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

Answer 3

A

Question 4

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.

Question 5

Unlike private citizens involved in politics, better-funded interest groups have several advantages EXCEPT

A) time.
B) money.
C) expertise.
D) media access.
E) continuity.

Question 6

What did Lonnie "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 7

________ 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) James "Pete" Laney
C) Bill Ratliff
D) Tom Craddick
E) Sam Rayburn

Question 8

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 9

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 10

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 11

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

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

Question 12

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 13

One of the most influential professional groups in Austin is the

A) Mexican American Legal Defense Fund.
B) Texas Lawyers Association.
C) Texas Medical Association.
D) Teachers Association.
E) Business Association.

Question 14

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) provide information to politicians, write bills, testify before legislative committees, and entertain politicians.

Question 15

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 16

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

Question 17

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 political action committees that allow members to bundle large contributions to candidates
E) running for office themselves

Question 18

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 19

What do interest groups want from policy makers?

A) They want policy that is beneficial for their groups.
B) They want information that benefits their groups.
C) They want monies for their special projects.
D) They want unlimited access to the policy makers.
E) They want to help write policy that addresses their interests.

Question 20

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 21

Which U.S. Supreme Court case in 2009 created the opportunity for organizations that opposed powerful incumbents to NOT disclose their donors?

A) Clinton v. Patriot Citizens
B) Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission
C) McCutcheon v. Federal Elections Commission
D) Bush v. Federal Elections Commission
E) Tea Party v. Federal Elections Commission

Question 22

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

Question 23

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 24

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 25

If an interest group "gets on the late train," it means

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 political action committee 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 26

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 27

Most political action committee spending in Texas represents

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

Question 28

According to the Measures of Texas Civic Health, ________ percent of Texans have either contacted or visited a public official, ranking Texas ________ among the states.

A) 36; fiftieth
B) 25; forty-second
C) 9; forty-ninth
D) 38; thirty-seventh
E) 78.1; forty-first

Question 29

Which political action committees spend the least amount of money in Texas elections?

A) single-issue political action committees
B) labor unions
C) business groups
D) lawyers
E) consumer groups

Question 30

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) 3 times the amount of
D) 5 times as much as
E) 10 times as much as

Question 31

Which is NOT a reason for forming a political action committee?

A) Candidates are more likely to notice a substantial contribution from a political action committee than small individual contributions.
B) A substantial political action committee donation to a candidate can more likely gain political access than a lobbyist who simply asks.
C) A political action committee sends a message that its members care strongly enough about their agenda.
D) Candidates are more likely to allow political action committees to purchase media access during election season.
E) Political action committees serve as intermediaries to provide money to candidates that their members might not want to support publicly.

Question 32

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 33

Which of the following is NOT a typical threat to an incumbent running for re-election?

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

Question 34

What are the top two reasons Texans give for NOT voting?

A) bad weather and inconvenient hours for voting
B) busy and forgot to vote
C) not interested/vote does not matter and don't like the candidates
D) busy/conflict with work and not interested/vote does not matter
E) inconvenient hours for voting and transportation problems

Question 35

Scandals about the "steak men," Bo Pilgrim, and Gib Lewis resulted in

A) restrictions on speaking fees.
B) the creation of a state ethics commission.
C) restrictions on pleasure trips.
D) limits on lobbying behavior.
E) removal of the "steak men" and Gib Lewis.

Question 36

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 37

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 political action committee that raises money from the petrochemical industry.
E) It is an organization that lobbies for more government efforts to stop child abduction.

Question 38

One major way for interest groups to promote the political interests of elected officials who support their viewpoints and oppose the interests of those who do NOT is by engaging in

A) campaign contributions.
B) hiring staff personnel.
C) buying media access.
D) letter writing.
E) campaign consulting.

Question 39

Battleground Texas is the latest attempt by the Democratic Party to do all of the following EXCEPT

A) identify potential Democratic voters.
B) identify potential candidates.
C) make voters familiar with Democratic positions.
D) make voters familiar with Democratic candidates.
E) increase voter turnout.

Question 40

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 41

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

Question 42

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

Question 43

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

Question 44

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

Question 45

Political action committees help interest groups bundle campaign donations.

Question 46

Spending on issue advocacy ads by political action committees need NOT be reported by a candidate.

Question 47

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 48

Dark money is political money where the donors of the money do NOT have to be disclosed.

Question 49

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

Question 50

One of the most influential professional groups in Austin is the Texas Medical Association.

Question 51

Interest groups representing labor organizations dominate Texas politics.

Question 52

Some of Texas's biggest lobby spenders are groups that include the interests of consumers, the environment, or human services.

Question 53

Texas has strong laws dealing with lobbying from former government officials.

Question 54

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

Question 55

Incumbents are most likely to receive large campaign contributions.

Question 56

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 57

A lobbyist is an individual employed by a political action committee who tries to influence governmental decisions on behalf of that group.

Question 58

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

Question 59

No large interest groups in Texas represent the environment.

Question 60

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

Question 61

How well do organized interests in Texas represent the needs of average Texans? Do organized interests contribute to problems such as hyperpluralism and polarization?

Question 62

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

Question 63

Is there anything Texas can do to limit the impact of large campaign donors without limiting free speech?

Question 64

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 65

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.