Political Parties
This week your DB post will be about one of the political parties in the U.S. OR about one of the recent election campaigns in Fall 2018 (midterm Congressional elections).
Initial Post
By Friday
- Choose ONE of two types of news articles:
a. An article about one of the political parties in the U.S. (Democratic, Republican, Green, Libertarian, etc.)
OR
a. An article about one of the races for U.S. Congress that took place in November 2018
· Must be STRAIGHT NEWS REPORTING, not “opinion” “editorial” or “analysis”
· Must be from an academically appropriate news source. Acceptable news sources:
o
The New York Times
o
The Washington Post
o
The Washington Times
o
The Wall Street Journal
o
The Los Angeles Times
o
Chicago Tribune
o
Time
o
Newsweek
o Associated Press wire articles in other newspapers
o News websites: NPR, CNN, ABC News, CBS News, Fox, MSNBC, CNBC, PBS Newshour
a. A ONE paragraph summary of the article in your own words
b. ONE paragraph of course connections. Find at least THREE key terms or course concepts from this Unit’s textbook readings The textbook for this course is
We the People
(12th edition) , Clearly show how they relate to the article content.
c. A correctly formatted MLA or APA citation for the article
Response Post
- replyto at least ONE fellow student who chose a DIFFERENT topic than yours. In your reply, address the following questions:
a. How is your article SIMILAR to the one in this post?
b. How is it DIFFERENT?
c. What did you learn from this student’s post that helps you to understand course material better?
RESPOND TO ONLY ONE OF THESE POST
STUDENT A POST
Republican Mia Love lost against Democratic mayor Ben Mcadams during the 2018 Utah election. In 2014, Mia Love had become the first black Republican woman in congress. Ben McAdams won the election by less than seven hundred votes during the two week long race. From a three-to-one ratio, Love gained the majority of Republican voters in the Salt Lake City region. President Donald Trump implied that the victory of McAdams was due to Love not fully embracing or supporting his actions. On particular topics such as migration and trade, Mia Love seemed to separate her views from the presidents. Ben McAdams is the first Democratic influencer in the congressional district of Utah.
Some key concepts that relate to this article are state party organizations,the single-member districts, and retrospective voting.
State party organizations
are held by central committees made up of individuals from local party organizations. Each political party is lead by a central committee. The state party organizations are involved in fundraising, efforts to get people to register for voting, and help increase their candidates success rates. They act on a state level, focusing on statewide races such as U.S senator or governor and contests for the state legislature. The 2018 Utah election is constructed on state party organizations. The Republican party ( Mia Love) and Democtaric party (Ben McAdams) challenged each other through the powers granted by state party organizations.
Single member districts
are defined as a form of representation in which only the candidate who gets the most votes in a district wins office. This particular state election came down to a very close difference in votes that determined the next official. The voter turnout among registered voters was noted as the highest for any Utah midterm election since 1962. In a race of approximately 269,00 votes, Mia Love came twenty votes short of requesting a recount.Retrospective voting
is known as the past performance of candidates decisions that may influence or affect the current election. Many expected Mia Love to win this midterm election due to her victory in 2014. Running as the first black female Republican incumbent and outnumbering Democratic voters, but also having downfalls involved with Donald Trump.
STUDENT B POST
The Democratic SenatorSherrod Brown has won his re-election bid against RepublicanJim Renacci in a contest that didn't live up to the expectations of the early hype. He was called winner 40 minutes after the polls closed. Mr.Brown came into the election cycle with a target on his back but is thought to have gotten out of it easy asJosh Mandel pulled out of the race because of his wife's health. Because of this decision, Republicans were struggling to find a good replacement and had to work to convinceMr. Renacci, who was going to run for governor, to run for Senate instead. Together, the candidates raised $35 million, but Brown raised more with $22 million being spent by him. The victory by Mr. Brown makes him a three-time incumbent in the Senate, having served since 2006; and before that serving 14 years in the house.
This article is related to concepts such as campaign funds, state party organizations, and general elections. Campaign funds are the money that candidates use to advertise themselves to get into office, they must raise a lot of money to be able to realistically compete as campaigns are very expensive. This ties into the article as Brown and Renacci raised $35 million combined while Brown raised $22 million of that because he was the incumbent and was thus able to receive money easier. State party organizations are the political party organizations that help candidates try and get elected. This ties into the article because US senator candidates, such as Brown and Renacci, receive help from state party organizers with fundraising, polling, and voter recognition. Finally, general elections are the election that decides which candidate will win public office. This ties into the article because Brown and Rennaci had to compete in a general election to see who would be apart of the Senate.