Campaign Process

Voter canvass: the process by which a campaign reaches individual voters, either by door-to-door solicitation or by telephone 

Get-out–the-vote (GOTV): a push at the end of a political campaign to encourage supporters to go to the polls

Campaign manager: the individual who travels with the candidate and coordinates the many different aspects of the campaign

Campaign consultant: the private-sector professionals and firms who sell to a candidate the technologies, services, and strategies required to get the candidate elected

Direct mailer: a professional who supervises a political campaign’s direct-mail fundraising strategies

Communications director: the person who develops the overall media strategy for the candidate, blending the free press coverage with the paid TV, radio, and mail media

Media consultant: a professional who produces candidates’ television, radio, and print advertisements

Spot ads: television advertising on behalf of a candidate that is broadcast in sixty-, thirty-, or ten-second durations

Horse race (s): the “who’s ahead, who’s behind, who’s gaining” aspect of politics; detrimental to the substance of the candidates’ issues and ideas; public opinion polls (tracking polls) dominate coverage; tone of the media coverage can effect whether people decide to give money and other types of support to a candidate

Media events: activities designed to include sound bites and staged with appealing backdrops so that they will be run on the television news and in the paper

Sound bites: brief, clever quotes used by candidates in media events

Spin: putting the most favorable interpretation for their candidate (and the most negative for their opponent) on any circumstance occurring in the campaign

Candidate debates (s): forum in which political candidates face each other to discuss their platforms, records, and character; important tool for both consolidating their voter base and correcting misconceptions about the candidate’s suitability for office; errors or slips of tongue can affect election outcomes; increase knowledge about the candidates and their respective personalities and issue positions

McConnell v. FEC (2003): concluded that the government’s interest in preventing political-party corruption overrides the free speech rights to which the parties would otherwise be entitled

Federal Election Campaign Act of 1974 (FECA): governed campaign finance for the past thirty years; first established public funding of presidential campaigns

Political action committees (s): federally mandated, officially registered fundraising committee that represents interest groups in the political process; give primarily to incumbents; candidate might reciprocate PAC donations with loyalty to their cause

Buckley V. Valeo (1976) (s): ruled that no limit could be placed on the amount of money candidates can spend from their families’ resources, since such spending is considered a First Amendment right of free speech; allowed wealthy politicians to spend millions

Matching funds: donations to presidential campaigns from the federal government that are determined by the amount of private funds a qualifying candidate raises

Hard money: legally specified and limited contributions that are clearly regulated by the FECA and by the FEC. 

Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA): limits the amount that individuals, interest groups, and political parties can give to candidates for president, senator, and representative; prevents any single group or individual from gaining too much influence over elected officials

Soft money: the virtually unregulated money funneled by individuals and political committees through state and local parties

Issue advocacy: issue advocacy advertisements paid for with unregulated soft money; much like express advocacy ads, but avoids usage of the terms “vote for” or “vote against” 

Independent Expenditures: the money spent on express advocacy advertisements without a candidate’s cooperation

527 Committees (e, s): unregulated interest groups that focus on specific cause or policy position and attempt to influence the decision of voters; unregulated soft money in previous election cycles ended up in the hands of these organizations; campaign reform law had no effect on overall spending. (ex. the Media fund and Americans Coming Together)  

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