Deck 13: The Campaign Process

Question 1

What 1907 legislation prohibited corporations from making direct contributions to candidates for federal office?

A) Hatch Act
B) Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act
C) Tillman Act
D) Federal Election Campaign Act

Answer 1

C

Question 2

The __________ is the bureaucratic agency in charge of monitoring federal campaign activity.

A) Federal Election Commission
B) Election Finance Commission
C) Federal Voting Committee
D) Voter Regulation Board

Answer 2

A

Question 3

One reason that candidates visit many localities during a campaign is to __________.

A) see as much of the country as possible
B) prove they have widespread support
C) motivate local activists
D) spend public money on travel

Answer 3

C

Question 4

The person in the campaign who is closest to the candidate and who makes the essential day-to-day decisions is the __________.

A) campaign manager
B) field director
C) communications director
D) communications manager

Question 5

Most candidates running in a general election have an incentive to move toward the __________.

A) far right of the party line
B) far left of the party line
C) ideological extreme of the party
D) ideological center

Question 6

Which of the following states that Obama carried in 2008 was carried by Romney in 2012?

A) Ohio
B) New York
C) California
D) North Carolina

Question 7

Nomination campaigns __________.

A) involve candidates of the same political party
B) end one week before Election Day
C) are usually toss-ups until the very end
D) determine the final outcome of the election

Question 8

Who measures public opinion for a campaign?

A) the canvasser
B) the pollster
C) the field director
D) the chief economist

Question 9

Candidate debates became a regular part of presidential campaigns in which decade?

A) the 1820s
B) the 1910s
C) the 1960s
D) the 1980s

Question 10

Which of these third-party candidates received enough votes to qualify for public campaign funding?

A) Ralph Nader
B) Ross Perot
C) Bob Dole
D) Ron Paul

Question 11

Which of the following candidates in the 2012 Republican nomination campaign won the Iowa caucuses?

A) Mitt Romney
B) Newt Gingrich
C) Rick Perry
D) Rick Santorum

Question 12

One of the primary dangers for the nomination campaign is that its candidate __________.

A) can become overly cautious and not talk about issues
B) ignores the party's base
C) gets too much media attention
D) can become too ideologically extreme

Question 13

As the cost of campaigns has risen and fund-raising has become more important,the staff position of __________ has also grown in prestige and significance.

A) campaign manager
B) press secretary
C) communications director
D) finance chair

Question 14

In 1964,which candidate tried too hard to appeal to his party's activists and lost the election as a result?

A) Lyndon Johnson
B) George McGovern
C) Barry Goldwater
D) Richard Nixon

Question 15

Which presidential ticket was the first to use the Internet in a national campaign?

A) Obama and Biden
B) McCain and Palin
C) Gore and Lieberman
D) Clinton and Gore

Question 16

The brief,clever quotes that candidates hope will be replayed after media events are known as __________.

A) sound bites
B) bon mots
C) footballs
D) pearls of wisdom

Question 17

What Supreme Court decision determined that no limits could be placed on the amount of his or her own money a candidate spends in an election?

A) Citizens United v. FEC
B) Buckley v. Valeo
C) McCain v. NRA
D) BCRA v. United States

Question 18

In a presidential campaign,candidates' efforts to meet as many voters as possible are __________.

A) useless as media events
B) unimportant in competitive elections
C) largely symbolic
D) a total waste of time

Question 19

In one recent election,researchers found that individual donors accounted for what percentage of contributions to presidential candidates?

A) 5
B) 25
C) 55
D) 85

Question 20

Which country has the most women serving as legislators?

A) United States
B) Japan
C) Sweden
D) Rwanda

Question 21

Why is a candidate's moving to the left or the right during the nomination phase both an advantage and a disadvantage?

A) It gives a candidate a more defined ideological position, but most voters pay little attention to ideology.
B) While moving to one end of the spectrum might motivate the party base during the nomination, it might actually alienate more moderate voters of the general election.
C) Such a move decreases divisions within one political party, but it provides banter for the media.
D) The general public, who usually views these moves as appealing during the nomination, feels differently when the candidates go to the debates in the general election.

Question 22

In total,how much money can an individual give to candidates and parties in a given election?

A) $2,600
B) $5,000
C) $32,400
D) an unlimited amount

Question 23

Campaigns focus on their __________ efforts in the last days before the general election.

A) message analysis
B) fund-raising
C) national caucus
D) get-out-the-vote

Question 24

One of the most basic methods of canvassing is __________.

A) going door to door to solicit votes
B) speaking at campaign events
C) creating television and print ads
D) attending meet-and-greet events for candidates

Question 25

Which of the following is characteristic of negative ads?

A) They exclusively focus on the candidate's character.
B) They typically compare and contrast candidates' issue positions.
C) They are on the decline as a whole.
D) They may not even mention the sponsor of the ads except as required.

Question 26

Which spent the most money in 2012?

A) BCRAs
B) 501(c) groups
C) 527 groups
D) Super PACs

Question 27

Mitt Romney's selection of Paul Ryan as his running mate in the 2012 election suggests that __________.

A) Romney was concerned that he was too conservative to win in the general election
B) Romney was concerned that the Republican base did not view him as conservative enough
C) Ryan was being groomed to be the next Republican presidential candidate
D) Romney wanted to balance the ticket by adding an ethnic minority

Question 28

Why do campaigns hire consultants?

A) Consultants tell candidates what they want to hear.
B) Consultants have specialized expertise that can help the candidate get elected.
C) Consultants only receive payment if the candidate wins the election.
D) Campaign consultants usually work for free.

Question 29

The federal government has worked to regulate campaign finance __________.

A) for more than a century
B) since the 1950s
C) since the 1970s
D) for about five years

Question 30

During the 2008 election,opponents of Barack Obama suggested he was ineligible to be president because __________.

A) he was not thirty-five years of age
B) he had not lived for fourteen years in the United States
C) his parents were not married at the time he ran for office
D) he was not a natural-born citizen of the United States

Question 31

Why does Rwanda have the highest percentage of female lawmakers in the world?

A) There are more women in Rwanda, partly because so many men died in the genocide.
B) Rwanda uses a quota system to bring women into the government.
C) In Rwandan society, women have the dominant role and men are generally subservient.
D) Men are prohibited from serving in the legislature without a declaration of war.

Question 32

If your campaign has very limited funding,which of the following strategies for reaching voters is likely to be most attractive to you?

A) a professionally produced positive ad
B) a series of campaign stops throughout a state
C) hiring consultants to create and maintain an Internet site
D) robo-calls

Question 33

Which of the following events during the 2012 general election caused consternation for President Obama's campaign?

A) Michelle Obama's reluctance to say the Pledge of Allegiance when she visited an elementary school
B) Vice President Joe Biden's nomination speech
C) the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi
D) a suggestion that Obama would never receive the votes of 47 percent of Americans who were dependent on public assistance

Question 34

Which of the following is a strategy that campaigns frequently use when attempting to control media coverage?

A) giving the media unlimited and unfettered access to candidates
B) staging media events
C) refusing to talk to the press
D) telephone canvassing

Question 35

Suppose you are a candidate who has been participating in an extramarital affair,and you expect that the truth will be revealed soon.What is the most effective way for your campaign to get ahead of this story in order to minimize the damage?

A) stage a media event
B) take a leave of absence from the rigors of campaigning
C) conduct a push poll
D) air an inoculation ad

Question 36

Even though a candidate may not approve of negative ads,what is one reason he or she might agree to run them?

A) Negative ads tend to be less costly than positive ads.
B) A negative ad can give a voter a reason to stay away from the polls.
C) A negative ad can give a voter a reason to vote against an opponent.
D) Negative ads can help to counteract anticipated attacks from opponents.

Question 37

PACs are most likely to allocate their campaign contributions to __________.

A) incumbents
B) open-seat candidates
C) challengers
D) congressional candidates

Question 38

Suppose you are a candidate and you want to re-craft your campaign message.With which of the following staff members would you most likely work closely in order to create a compelling and effective message?

A) communications director
B) press secretary
C) message manager
D) field director

Question 39

Nonprofit,tax-exempt groups that can spend no more than half of their money on campaign politics and are not required to disclose the names of contributors are called __________.

A) political action committees
B) 527 committees
C) 501(c) groups
D) leadership PACs

Question 40

The media's horse-race coverage of political campaigns focuses on __________.

A) who is ahead, who is behind, and who is gaining
B) issue analyses
C) candidates' personal lives
D) analyses of debates

Question 41

In most democracies,about half of all legislators are women.

Question 42

Candidates can give as much money toward their own campaigns as they wish.

Question 43

How can campaign advertisements work both for and against a candidate?

A) Negative ads always make a candidate look good, while making his or her opponent look bad.
B) A contrast ad can neutralize a difficult topic, while risking more conversation on the topic than would ordinarily result.
C) Ads deliver the desired message, but some voters may want more in-depth coverage of a candidate's experience and positions.
D) Ads deliver the desired message, but news media are increasingly analyzing and reporting on their accuracy.

Question 44

U.S.citizens can give the largest campaign contribution to a __________.

A) local party
B) state party
C) national party
D) political action committee

Question 45

The traditional media __________.

A) help candidates increase their name recognition for free
B) usually focus their reports on in-depth analyses of the issues
C) pay substantial sums to the campaign for the privilege of covering the candidates
D) seldom consider political campaigns to be newsworthy

Question 46

What was the largest source of campaign spending in 2004?

A) 501(c) groups
B) 527 groups
C) PACs
D) Super PACs

Question 47

Campaign consultants were first used in campaigns in the 1980s.

Question 48

Total PAC spending has increased every year since PACs were created in 1972.

Question 49

The Supreme Court struck down the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act as an unconstitutional infringement of free speech almost immediately after it was enacted.

Question 50

One likely reason behind Romney's loss of Michigan in the 2012 election was his opposition to the Obama bailout of the auto industry.

Question 51

The nomination campaign may begin years before the actual election.

Question 52

The Federal Election Campaign Act established disclosure requirements related to campaign spending.

Question 53

Most national campaigns prefer not to use social media to interact with prospective voters because it creates a permanent record of conversations.

Question 54

Candidates rarely make appearances on comedy shows such as Saturday Night Live and The Daily Show because the public does not take these outlets seriously.

Question 55

One difference between the primary election campaign and the general election campaign is the party of a candidate's opponents.

Question 56

Robo-calls are one of the least efficient ways for campaigners to reach potential voters.

Question 57

The national political party is prohibited from giving more than $2,600 to any given candidate per election.

Question 58

The first negative campaigning at the presidential level was in 1980.

Question 59

"Spin" is when a campaign puts forward the most favorable possible interpretation for their candidate on any circumstance occurring in the campaign.

Question 60

Based on the number of candidate visits,which of the following states did both candidates consider a high priority in the 2012 election?

A) Wisconsin
B) Nevada
C) Pennsylvania
D) Florida

Question 61

How do tracking polls affect the way traditional media cover elections?

Question 62

If a presidential candidate felt confident of being able to raise enough money for a campaign,he or she might choose not to accept __________.

Question 63

What are some of the duties of a campaign manager?

Question 64

In the 2012 election,the state of __________ could not certify its election for days owing to polling glitches and the prolonged process of counting absentee and provisional ballots.

Question 65

The "horse-race" coverage of a campaign tends to focus on the candidate's schedule.

Question 66

President Gerald R.Ford's erroneous insistence during an October 1976 debate with Jimmy Carter that Poland was not under Soviet domination may have cost him a close election.

Question 67

If a small newspaper writes an incendiary exposé about a candidate,the person on the campaign staff who most needs to be made aware of it is the communications director.

Question 68

In the 1972 presidential election,__________ defeated George McGovern,who had strayed too far to the left.

Question 69

Super PACs can make __________ on campaign activities so long as they are not coordinated with a particular candidate's campaign.

Question 70

What activities do candidates concentrate on during the nomination campaign?

Question 71

__________ are organizations created primarily to influence the nomination,election,or appointment of political candidates.There are no limits on the size of contributions made to these groups.

Question 72

The campaign staffer who has the job of delivering bad news from the campaign and responding to attacks is the __________.

Question 73

__________ ads compare the records and proposals of the candidates,with a bias toward the candidate sponsoring the ad.

Question 74

Describe three strategies a campaign might use in an attempt to control media coverage.

Question 75

What is a political action committee?

Question 76

The __________ develops the overall media strategy for the campaign.

Question 77

Republican candidates tend to accentuate their most conservative ideas in the primary and then attempt to appear more moderate during the general election.

Question 78

The __________ campaign is aimed at winning the primary election.

Question 79

Congress enacted serious campaign finance regulation in the wake of the __________ scandal of the 1970s.

Question 80

In McCutcheon v.FEC,the Supreme Court limited the total amount of money donors could give to all candidates combined.