The Modern Political Campaign
The Modern Political Campaign

Author: Richard K. Scher

Publisher: M.E. Sharpe

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13: 9780765637819

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Political campaigns in the United States have been . favorite targets of critics since our nation's origin. "Too long," "too expensive," "too negative," "too personal," "unbecoming to our democracy" -- these criticisms were made in the nineteenth century just as they are made today; but are they compelling?This short book takes a fresh look at the American style of campaign politics, past and present, warts and all, to argue that campaigns reflect both our popular culture and the place of politics in our national life. In the end, the purpose of campaigns is to draw voters' attention to a candidate or issue, even though politics is not of immediate interest to many or most citizens. That is what campaigns do and always have done in America -- and there is little reason to think that a more cerebral approach to politics would be more effective.Reflective, analytical, and firmly committed to democratic values, this book challenges citizens to trade cynicism for realism -- to take a clear-eyed look at our politics and ourselves, and appreciate both for what they are.

Modern Political Campaigns
Modern Political Campaigns

Author: Michael D. Cohen

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2021-06-15

Total Pages: 205

ISBN-13: 1538153815

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Modern Political Campaigns brings together academic, practical, and interviews to help understand how professionalism, technology, and speed have revolutionized elections, creating more voter-centric races for public office. Dr. Michael D. Cohen, a 20+ year veteran of working on, teaching, and writing about political campaigns take readers through how campaigns are organized, state-of-the-art tools of the trade, and how some of the most interesting people in politics got their big breaks. The book takes readers through clear-eyed chapters on parties and elections, campaign planning and management, fundraising, independent groups, vulnerability and opposition research, data and analytics, focus groups and polling, earned, paid and social media, and field operations. Finally, the book revisits the Permanent Campaign in terms of modern approaches to winning elections raising questions about today’s uniform preference for turnout over persuasion and what that means for our American democracy. Modern Political Campaigns will appeal to students and political activists interested in working in political campaigns. It is also a great read for anyone who wants to better understand the nuts and bolts of campaigns in practical terms from professionals, and the opportunities they provide all of us to be more engaged citizens and hold our leaders more accountable each Election Day.

Political Campaigns in the United States
Political Campaigns in the United States

Author: Richard K. Scher

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-02-19

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 1317295900

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A Choice Highly Recommended Title—January 2017 This book is an interpretive analysis of political campaigns in America: instead of focusing on how campaigns are designed and run, it investigates the role campaigns play in our American politics, and the close symbiosis between campaigns and those politics. The text examines how campaigns are an important manifestation of how we "do" politics in this country. Hallmarks of this text include: showing how campaigns can undermine our democracy and asking how democratic they—and by extension, our politics--really are; demonstrating that the ability of the media to accurately, fairly, and deeply report on campaigns has been severely compromised, both because of the growing "distance" between campaigns and media outlets and because of the structure of "Big Media" corporate ownership and its tight relationship to "Big Money." It asks important questions about the media including: How do the media, reporters in particular, cover campaigns? What pressures and forces shape what and how they present campaigns? What is the impact of the ever-increasing chasm separating campaigns and the media? How does the close tie between corporate mainstream media and Super PAC money affect campaign coverage? How does the ability of campaigns and media to segment voters into ever-smaller slices influence how campaigns are covered? tracking the continuing growth of unregulated, private, unaccountable "dark money" in campaigns as a threat to our democratic elections and politics. Democracy rests fundamentally on transparency and accountability – sunlight – and our campaign laws and norms now allow and encourage exactly the opposite, largely because of decisions by the United States Supreme Court.

Guide to Political Campaigns in America
Guide to Political Campaigns in America

Author: Paul S. Herrnson

Publisher: CQ Press

Published: 2005-08-20

Total Pages: 475

ISBN-13: 9781568028767

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Campaigns are a critical part of the political process in the United States, but until now, reference sources on campaigns have only covered selected parts of the process or have been written for political insiders. The Guide to Political Campaigns in America is the first resource to examine and explain every aspect of campaigns in a manner that satisfies the needs of many different audiences. This unique and comprehensive volume explores history, issues, processes and people, and types of campaigns. Editor Paul Herrnson, a well-respected government and politics scholar who has worked on many campaigns himself, brings to the work a dynamic combination of high-level scholarship and hands-on experience that sets this guide apart from all other campaign resources. Readers will find information on every aspect of political campaigning in America, including: The evolution of political campaigns; The political and regulatory environment of campaigning, including suffrage and ballot access; The importance of the voters and what influences the vote; The key players in the campaign organization, including the candidate and various managers; Other players who interact with the campaign, including the media and political parties; Key strategies and tactics, such as polling and campaign financing; Specific types of campaigns, including the well known, such as the presidency, House, Senate, governorship, and key state and local races; as well campaigns for the judiciary and for initiatives and referenda; Campaign and election reform. The expansive coverage and distinctive approach of this resource will appeal to a wide variety of library patrons, including students, professors, teachers of AP high school courses, and professionals in the media and campaigning fields.

Political Advertising in the United States
Political Advertising in the United States

Author: Erika Franklin Fowler

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-05-04

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0429977905

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Political advertising is as important as ever, ad spending records are broken each election cycle, and the volume of ads aired continues to increase. Political Advertising in the United States is a comprehensive survey of the political advertising landscape and its influence on voters. The authors, co-directors of the Wesleyan Media Project, draw from the latest data to analyze how campaign finance laws have affected the sponsorship and content of political advertising, how 'big data' has allowed for more sophisticated targeting, and how the Internet and social media has changed the distribution of ads. With detailed analysis of presidential and congressional campaign ads and discussion questions in each chapter, this accessibly written book is a must-read for students, scholars and practitioners who want to understand the ins and outs of political advertising.

Super PACs
Super PACs

Author: Louise I. Gerdes

Publisher: Greenhaven Publishing LLC

Published: 2014-05-20

Total Pages: 113

ISBN-13: 0737776552

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The passage of Citizens United by the Supreme Court in 2010 sparked a renewed debate about campaign spending by large political action committees, or Super PACs. Its ruling said that it is okay for corporations and labor unions to spend as much as they want in advertising and other methods to convince people to vote for or against a candidate. This book provides a wide range of opinions on the issue. Includes primary and secondary sources from a variety of perspectives; eyewitnesses, scientific journals, government officials, and many others.

Groundbreakers
Groundbreakers

Author: Elizabeth McKenna

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 269

ISBN-13: 0199394598

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Much has been written about the historic nature of the Obama campaign. The multi-year, multi-billion dollar operation elected the nation's first black president, raised and spent more money than any other election effort in history, and built the most sophisticated voter targeting technology ever before used on a national campaign. What is missing from most accounts of the campaign is an understanding of how Obama for America recruited, motivated, developed, and managed its formidable army of 2.2 million volunteers. Unlike previous field campaigns that drew their power from staff, consultants, and paid canvassers, the Obama campaign's capacity came from unpaid local citizens who took responsibility for organizing their own neighborhoods months--and even years--in advance of election day. In so doing, Groundbreakers argues, the campaign engaged citizens in the work of practicing democracy. How did they organize so many volunteers to produce so much valuable work for the campaign? This book describes how. Elizabeth McKenna and Hahrie Han argue that the legacy of Obama for America extends beyond big data and micro-targeting; it also reinvigorated and expanded traditional models of field campaigning. Groundbreakers makes the case that the Obama campaign altered traditional ground games by adopting the principles and practices of community organizing. Drawing on in-depth interviews with OFA field staff and volunteers, this book also argues that a key achievement of the OFA's field organizing was its transformative effect on those who were a part of it. Obama the candidate might have inspired volunteers to join the campaign, but it was the fulfilling relationships that volunteers had with other people--and their deep belief that their work mattered for the work of democracy--that kept them active. Groundbreakers documents how the Obama campaign has inspired a new way of running field campaigns, with lessons for national and international political and civic movements.

Internet Election Campaigns in the United States, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan
Internet Election Campaigns in the United States, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan

Author: Shoko Kiyohara

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-10-17

Total Pages: 223

ISBN-13: 3319636820

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This book investigates how institutional differences, such as the roles of political parties and the regulation of electoral systems, affect the development of Internet election campaigns in the U.S., Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. It examines whether or not the “Americanization of elections” is evident in East Asian democracies. While Japan is a parliamentary system, the U.S. and Korea are presidential systems and Taiwan is a semi-presidential system that has a president along with a parliamentary system. Furthermore, the role of the presidency in the U.S., Korea, and Taiwan is quite different. Taking these variations in political systems into consideration, the authors discuss how the electoral systems are regulated in relation to issues such as paid advertisements and campaign periods. They argue that stronger regulation of election systems and shorter election periods in Japan characterize Japanese uniqueness compared with the U.S., Korea, and Taiwan in terms of Internet election campaigns.