Gerrymandering
-
redrawing
of electoral districts to favor parties
-
states
control districting
-
most
states allow legislature to control the process
o
roughly
12 have independent commissions involved
-
Limits
political competition
o
in
2002 midterms, only 4 incumbents defeated by non-incumbent challengers
o
less
than 10% of races were won by less than 10% of the vote
-
Why
vote if election is probably decided?
-
http://www.fairvote.org/?page=289
o
Narrow-Casting from the Pulpit and
"Strategic Extremism" (Glaeser et al)[1]
-
median
voter theory says parties should target message to median voter
-
Republican
party gains greater support from regular church-goers than Democratic Party
o
how
to communicate a message to regular church-goers but not alienate median voter
-
in
states where half the population attends church regularly, church attendance is
correlated with voting republican
o
when
roughly half the population attends church regularly, and the church-going
population leans right, the party can direct a separate message toward them
o
in
states where most residents are regular church-goers, there is little effect on
voting republican
o
cannot
narrow-cast from the pulpit in those cases
-
estimate
that model explains about 1/3 of the shift in voting patterns
Campaign Advertising and Negative
Ads
-
Public
dislikes negative advertising…
-
but
negative ads seem to ‘inform’ voters
- Except for Swing Voters
Source: http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?PageID=879