Deck 4: Political Parties in Texas

Question 1

Texans are increasingly identifying themselves as

A) Republican.
B) independent.
C) Democratic.
D) Libertarian.
E) Populist.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

The ________ convention is a meeting held by a political party following its precinct convention for the purpose of electing delegates to its state convention.

A) city
B) regional
C) county
D) special district
E) suburban

Answer 2

C

Question 3

The Latino movement known as La Raza Unida occurred during the

A) 1920s.
B) 1940s.
C) 1960s.
D) 1980s.
E) 1990s.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Which movement has had the largest impact on state legislative races in recent years?

A) the Tea Party movement
B) La Raza Unida
C) the Libertarian movement
D) the Green Party movement
E) the Occupy movement

Question 5

Most Texas Democrats today would be classified as

A) liberal.
B) moderate.
C) independent.
D) swing voters.
E) undecided.

Question 6

The degree to which members of the Texas Republican Party have become more conservative and members of the Texas Democratic Party have become more liberal is referred to as

A) partisan drift.
B) partisan allegiance.
C) partisan polarization.
D) the two-party system.
E) party factionalism.

Question 7

The fastest-growing demographic group in Texas is ________, the majority of whom vote ________.

A) Hispanic; Democratic
B) white; Democratic
C) Hispanic; Republican
D) African American; Republican
E) African American; Democratic

Question 8

Which party dominated Texas politics throughout most of the twentieth century?

A) Democratic
B) Republican
C) Populist
D) Texas politics was nonpartisan for most of the twentieth century.
E) Conservative

Question 9

After 1994, Democrats controlled the Texas House until ________, but Republicans held every statewide office.

A) 2000
B) 2002
C) 2008
D) 2010
E) 2012

Question 10

Why might parties at the state level have less power than that at the national level?

A) The creation of party primaries took control of the nomination from party leaders and gave it to the voters.
B) Local issues are usually not ideological in nature.
C) The rise of media campaigns made candidates more reliant on money than local party volunteers.
D) Legislative campaign committees raise money from individuals and interest groups and then distribute it to candidates at the national political party level, thereby weakening the influence of the state party.
E) Parties at the national level only focus on hot-button issues.

Question 11

Texas Democrats have been relegated to a minority status at the state level since

A) 1948.
B) 1964.
C) 1980.
D) 1994.
E) 2000.

Question 12

The most important role for political parties in Texas elections is to

A) fund the candidates' campaigns.
B) offer a candidate a label by which he or she can identify with the voters.
C) lead get-out-the-vote drives.
D) create political action committees.
E) fund television and radio campaign advertisements.

Question 13

According to Paul Burka, why are Texas Republicans considered to be in a "divided moment"?

A) because Republicans are divided over Latino voter recruitment
B) because coalition between the Latino and African American voters has dominated state politics in recent years, and the Tea Party movement has begun to influence state legislative races as well as statewide races
C) because of the rise of independent voters and the growing influence of the Tea Party movement
D) because pro-business Republicans have dominated state politics in recent years, and the Tea Party movement has begun to influence state legislative races as well as major statewide races
E) because pro-environment Republicans have dominated state politics in recent years and because of the growing influence of the Tea Party religious movement

Question 14

Why have political pundits in Texas been asking when Texas will "turn blue"?

A) African Americans and Latinos re-elected President Obama with over 70 percent of the vote.
B) The ongoing dominance of the Republican Party in the state and the state's growing minority population, which is increasingly Latino.
C) Texas is not as Republican compared to other states as is commonly perceived.
D) Texas has never been a democratic state.
E) The last ten years are the first time in Texas history that it has been Republican.

Question 15

The process of ________ occurs throughout our early years, when parents, religious leaders, teachers, and others influence our partisan identifications.

A) acculturation
B) political partisanship
C) political culture
D) indoctrination
E) political socialization

Question 16

Which of the following is NOT usually considered a function of political parties?

A) lobbying
B) getting out the vote
C) influencing voters' choices
D) training candidates
E) nominating candidates

Question 17

In modern-day Texas, control of state government

A) is shared between the two major parties.
B) fluctuates often between the two major parties.
C) lies solely in the hands of the Democrats.
D) lies solely in the hands of the Republicans.
E) lies in the hands of interest groups.

Question 18

The demographic changes in Texas makes the state more similar to its southern neighbors because the Texas

A) Democrats will become more minority and less white.
B) Democrats are white, Latino, Asian, and African American.
C) Democrats consist mainly of progressive whites.
D) Democrats' greatest influence is in certain localities.
E) Democrats are more liberal.

Question 19

State and local party organizations do all of the following EXCEPT

A) raise funds for candidates.
B) conduct voter-registration drives.
C) litigate against unfavorable policies.
D) recruit candidates for office.
E) conduct get-out-the-vote drives.

Question 20

The main role of the precinct conventions is to select delegates to the ________ and possibly to submit resolutions that may eventually become part of the party platform.

A) state executive committee
B) county convention
C) precinct convention
D) state convention
E) national convention

Question 21

All of the following are principles generally supported by the Tea Party movement EXCEPT

A) low taxes.
B) term limits.
C) increased immigration.
D) balanced budgets.
E) low government spending.

Question 22

Conservative Democrats in Texas are also known as

A) Blue Dog Democrats.
B) Yellow Dog Democrats.
C) Republicans.
D) Libertarians.
E) Populist Democrats.

Question 23

One of the reasons why party politics in Texas differs from that of other southern states is because

A) Texas was once its own country.
B) Texas is larger and more economically developed than most other southern states.
C) Texas borders Mexico.
D) most other southern states have a historically larger African American population than Texas.
E) Texas has much higher voter turnout than most other southern states.

Question 24

The Dixiecrats abandoned the national Democratic Party in the 1948 presidential election over the issue of

A) the Cold War.
B) civil rights.
C) the national deficit.
D) welfare reform.
E) prayer in schools.

Question 25

The Democratic Party in the state shrank to become the minority party when

A) Michael Dukakis won Texas in 1988.
B) George H. W. Bush moved to Texas.
C) George H. W. Bush won Texas in the general election of 2000.
D) the Reagan Revolution reached Texas.
E) white, conservative Democrats switched to the Republican Party.

Question 26

________ believe that they can have more influence in state politics if they become a force to be reckoned with within the Republican Party.

A) Libertarians
B) Tea Party members
C) Conservative Republicans
D) Independents
E) Occupy members

Question 27

When intraparty disputes split members into different groups, these groups are referred to as

A) factions.
B) teams.
C) enemies.
D) subparties.
E) party units.

Question 28

The mass exodus of more affluent whites from urban areas to suburban areas is sometimes referred to as

A) urban withdrawal.
B) white flight.
C) tax-base erosion.
D) urban racism.
E) urban sprawl.

Question 29

The pattern, beginning in the 1950s, of Texans voting for a Republican president but sticking with conservative Democrats for state offices is called

A) Yellow Dog democracy.
B) presidential Republicanism.
C) the white primary.
D) the Eisenhower syndrome.
E) the Republicrat movement.

Question 30

The Libertarian Party can be considered

A) fiscal and social liberals.
B) fiscal conservatives and social liberals.
C) fiscal and social conservatives.
D) fiscal liberals and social conservatives.
E) ideologically neutral.

Question 31

The Occupy movement is a political movement interested in limiting the influence of
________ in American politics.

A) the media
B) interest groups
C) political parties
D) Wall Street and big business
E) foreign countries

Question 32

Which of the following third-party movements had the most success in winning elections in the post-World War II era?

A) La Raza Unida
B) the Occupy movement
C) the Green Party
D) the Kinky Friedman movement
E) the Constitution Party

Question 33

The ________ movement was a movement during the 1950s in which conservative Democrats in Texas supported Republican candidate Dwight Eisenhower for the presidency because many of those conservative Democrats believed that the national Democratic Party had become too liberal.

A) Dixiecrat
B) La Raza Unida
C) Shivercrat
D) Constitutionalist
E) Natural Law

Question 34

Duverger's Law states that

A) proportional representation systems result in two-party systems.
B) one-party systems are the result of white flight.
C) single-member district systems result in two-party systems.
D) presidential Republicanism results in ticket splitting.
E) political socialization plays a large role in party identification.

Question 35

The latest new party formed in the United States in an election year was

A) the Tea Party.
B) the Natural Law Party.
C) the Green Party.
D) the Occupy movement.
E) the Constitution Party.

Question 36

________ is a system of representation that encourages third-party voting because it allows each political party representation in proportion to its percentage of the total vote.

A) Proportional representation
B) Duverger's Law
C) A single-member district
D) Multimember representation
E) At-large representation

Question 37

By about the 1940s, a split between liberal and conservatives developed in the Democratic Party that focused on

A) labor and civil rights measures.
B) New Deal economic policies and civil rights measures.
C) education and civil rights measures.
D) war and New Deal economic policies.
E) taxes and war.

Question 38

In the post-Civil War era, the only parts of Texas that showed significant Republican leanings were

A) counties in the Panhandle.
B) rural areas in East Texas.
C) counties located along the Rio Grande River.
D) large cities.
E) German counties in the Texas Hill Country.

Question 39

Texas requires parties that did not get 5 percent of the vote in a previous statewide race to do all of the following EXCEPT

A) collect a minimum number of signatures for their petitions to get on the ballot.
B) collect signatures for at least 1 percent of the total number who voted in the most recent gubernatorial election.
C) notify the state that they intend to qualify for inclusion on the ballot by petition.
D) submit the intention form in January of election years.
E) form third parties in the spring of the election years and complete the intent form.

Question 40

Although the Democratic Party dominated state politics for much of the twentieth century, by the 1950s it faced internal divisions between ________ and ________ Democrats.

A) liberal; conservative
B) moderates; liberal
C) conservative; moderate
D) Blue Dog Democrats; Yellow Dog
E) liberal; populist

Question 41

Duverger's Law states that single-member districts result in two-party systems.

Question 42

In Texas, the most local level of a party organization is the county.

Question 43

The main role of the precinct convention is to select delegates for the county-level convention.

Question 44

The Dixiecrat movement led by Strom Thurmond in 1948 opposed the segregationist ideas of President Truman.

Question 45

Texas voters, without other information, use the party affiliation of the candidates as a way to decide for whom to vote.

Question 46

Most of Texas's African American population is concentrated in all of the following areas EXCEPT

A) suburban Dallas and Houston.
B) East Texas.
C) inner-city Houston.
D) inner-city Dallas.
E) inner-city San Antonio.

Question 47

Latinos currently represent ________ percent of the Texas population.

A) 11
B) 20
C) 28
D) 38
E) over 50

Question 48

Most third-party candidates in Texas are unsuccessful in their electoral bids.

Question 49

Blue Dog Democrats are becoming more and more popular in Texas.

Question 50

Texas Democrats have been relegated to minority status in the state since 1994.

Question 51

The last Democratic governor of Texas was Ann Richards.

Question 52

Today, the Texas Democratic Party's base is made up of all of the following EXCEPT

A) Latinos.
B) African Americans.
C) white liberals in Austin.
D) whites in East Texas.
E) white liberals in Houston.

Question 53

One of the Republican Party's greatest weaknesses in Texas is its lack of support among

A) African Americans.
B) young people.
C) the wealthy.
D) Asian Americans.
E) Latinos.

Question 54

New immigrants are more likely than Tejanos to identify as Democrats and to see the Democratic Party as more supportive of immigrant rights.

Question 55

Which demographic group has the largest percentage share of voters in Texas?

A) Native Americans
B) Asians
C) Latinos
D) African Americans
E) whites

Question 56

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Texas was a competitive, two-party state.

Question 57

In Texas, which group is most likely to support the Republican Party?

A) Latinos
B) women
C) the wealthy
D) Jewish Americans
E) African Americans

Question 58

African Americans have the largest percentage share of voters in Texas.

Question 59

By 1999, Republicans took over complete control of all statewide offices.

Question 60

Partisan polarization refers to situations in which members of the same political party begin to fight over policy and ideological issues.

Question 61

Describe the history of Texas as a one-party state. Which party dominated Texas politics, and what are the historical origins behind this dominance? What were some of the ramifications of one-party rule? What caused the rise of a two-party system in Texas?

Question 62

Describe the structure of political parties and elections in Texas. What are the different levels of party organization?

Question 63

In South Texas, Democrats control many cities, towns, and school boards due to the large Latino population.

Question 64

What elements in the Texas political process inhibit voters from participating more widely in state politics?

Question 65

Describe the different roles that political parties play in Texas politics. What types of organizational structures do the Republican and Democratic parties have? What is the importance of party membership?

Question 66

Discuss the significance of Latino population growth to party politics in Texas. What issues are involved with mobilization and voting behavior within this group?

Question 67

Discuss urban, rural, and suburban influences on partisanship. Explain which party tends to dominate in each of these areas, and why.

Question 68

How does strong partisan ideology serve to weaken Texas's political parties?

Question 69

Latinos currently make up over 50 percent of the Texas population.

Question 70

In the 2010 general election, every official elected at the state level was Republican.