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| Chapter 11: Groups and Interests |
| What Government Does and Why It Matters |
| This exercise is designed to help you explore how presidential campaign financing can be examined by the types of contributors, the amount of money contributed, and the geographic origins and distribution of those contributions. |
| 1a. Visit the Federal Election Commission’s 2008 presidential candidate comparison list, located here. Choose three candidates and compare their financial data.
Which three candidates did you choose? |
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| 1b. How much “Cash On Hand” did each candidate have? How much “Debt” did each candidate have? |
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| 1c. Now compare the source of this funding under “”Receipts.” According to the list and the pie chart, which source of funding was greatest for each candidate? |
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| 2a. Now click on the Federal Election’s map of presidential campaign finance, located here.
What are the three states with the largest dollar contributions to all of the candidates? |
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| 2b. Now click on your candidate of choice on the left-hand side of the screen to see campaign finance information specific to that candidate. Which candidate did you select? |
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| 2c. On the right-hand side of the screen, there is a breakdown of the size of donations by category.
Which category has the largest dollar amount? Which category has the smallest dollar amount? Does this surprise you? |
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| 3a. Candidates in presidential elections must choose between accepting public funding for their campaign (which thereby limits their spending potential) or opting out of public funding and rely on private funds from individuals, PACs, and other sources with no limits on the amount that a candidate can raise or spend in the election.
In his 2008 presidential election campaign, Barack Obama opted out of public funding, while John McCain accepted public funding for his presidential bid. Read the following two articles on Obama’s historic and consequential decision:
USA Today
Politico
What do you find more compelling, the criticism of Obama or Obama's rationale for his decision? Why?
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| 3b. How does the chapter’s discussion of interest groups and lobbyists help you better understand the background to this debate? |
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