Campaign 2000 on the airwaves

The Campaign Media Analysis Group (CMAG) is a private company that, through advanced satellite technology, monitors and collects all televised political and issue advertisements run in the nation's top 75 media markets. While most of the features on CMAG's web site, http://www.politicsontv.com/, are available by subscription only, the group does publish a newsletter, The CMAG Eye, that anyone can access online. Go to the CMAG site and follow the link to past editions of the newsletter. Click on the November/December 2000 edition, which provides summary discussion of the 2000 presidential and congressional elections. Skim over the contents of the newsletter, which also includes some entertaining examples of political advertisements run on behalf of presidential contenders George W. Bush, Al Gore, and Ralph Nader. How does the discussion in this newsletter illustrate the important role that television advertising played in campaigns for political offices in 2000? Be sure to cite a couple of specific examples in your answer.




National interest in presidential and congressional elections

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is an independent regulatory agency created by Congress in 1975 to administer and enforce the Federal Election Campaign Act. The FEC gathers and makes available on its web site a number of statistical databases on campaign spending, voter turnout, and election results. The site is located at http://www.fec.gov/. At the FEC's Elections and Voting page, you will find a variety of links to statistics about voter registration and turnout. Locate the link to data on voter turnout in presidential and congressional elections over the period from 1960 to 1996. What pattern do you notice in these data? What do you think explains it?