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Sullivan Patrick Portfolio





Every year there are many elections and votes on political issues. Each vote is very important and people who believe very strongly in one of the choices will work very hard to persuade others to vote the same way as them. A huge amount of resources are consumed during presidential campaigns and campaigns for other high level positions. A study was done on past senate elections in order to discover the deciding factors for why each candidate received their votes. The most influential variables were found to be candidate records, qualifications, and financial resources. A candidate who was formerly a governor received 5.8% more of the votes than a candidate who was not and a candidate who was formerly a celebrity received 5.7% more of the votes than a candidate who was not. This shows that being well known and liked is just as important to voters as having previous experience in a political position. It was also found that a candidate could increase their share of the votes by up to 10% based on money spent during the campaign alone. This puts wealthy people in a much easier position to be elected based on them being wealthy, not based on them being a well qualified or good candidate. The study also found that there had been a recent shift from party-centered voters to candidate-centered voters. This makes the candidate’s personal appeal a very important factor. Their appeal may be altered through expensive advertising and good public image, not as much by actual qualifications or personal beliefs. The candidates in an election are not chosen by the public. There are primaries for presidential elections, but even the candidates for those are not chosen by the public. People with money and political power decide who the candidates are. In this way the public does not choose who the elected official is, they only choose which person from a select few is elected. Most campaigns rely heavily on television commercials in order to improve the public image of their candidate. These are advertisements trying to sell Americans the idea of voting for a certain candidate. They are not informational videos informing the public of a candidate’s belief and what they actually plan on trying to do in the office. They do not inform the general public on the realities of politics and what must be done in order to get what these candidates say they will work towards. Many campaign advertisements are actually negative ads against the other candidate. It is very easy to find a few bad things about a person’s past, and candidates must protect their public image their entire lives in order to become elected, otherwise it will come back to hurt them. In campaign ads and in debates the candidates must say what the general public wants to hear. If a candidate ever said what they really want to do in office or what it will cost to country to get what they want to get done, then the public will not vote for that person. Almost all Americans do not understand how politics actually work once an official is elected, so how can they truly know who would make a good candidate? Most votes are uninformed due to a lack of information to the public. Votes are made based on a person’s physical appearance or amount of television advertisements rather than their ability to perform in office. In the 2008 presidential election Obama spent $730 million and McCain spent $333 million. The outcome of the election saw Obama winning with 53% of the vote and McCain losing with 46% of the vote. This is only a difference of 7% of the vote. Over a billion dollars was spent during this election in order to make 7% more of the US population happy with the outcome. But does the US population really know what a candidate is going to do in office, or even what they would really want a candidate to do in office. Obama’s current approval rating is 29% of the population while 41% of the population is against what he is doing. So does this mean that at this point over a billion dollars was spent to elect the candidate that most of the US does not want in office? Either regulations on campaign spending, or a whole new campaign system must be put into place. If both campaigns were run by a single independent, objective organization, which aimed to inform the public rather than sell it an idea, the general public would be able to truly have an informed voice in our government.

Here are some academic journals on U.S. Senate election outcomes Explaining Senate Election Outcomes Determinates of the Outcomes of U.S. Senate Elections Quality, Not Quantity: Strategic Politicians in U.S. Senate Elections, 1952-1990

Here are a couple links on presidential polls @http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123690358175013837.html @http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll

Here is a good link on campaign spending during the 2008 election @http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/index.php

Here is a link to a South Park clip making fun of election debates @http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/154582/?tab=related