AP Govt: Elections, Media, and Interest Groups Test

Which of the following is an accurate comparison of congressional and presidential campaigns?

• Congressional elections are conducted every 3 years and presidential elections are conducted every 4 years.
• Congressional elections have lower voter turnout than presidential elections and presidential elections are decided by the Electoral College.
• Congressional elections nominate candidates at national conventions and presidential candidates are 2nd highest vote getter in primaries becomes the VP candidate.
• Congressional elections have candidates that compete for federal matching money and presidential elections candidates can accept higher donations from individual than congressional candidates.

Which interest group action would most greatly influence rulings in the courts?

• Filing an amicus curie brief
• Rating senators and representatives based how they vote
• Purchasing an ad in a newspaper
• Directly lobbying House and Senate members

Which of the following describes a fundamental difference between political parties and interest groups?

• Political parties are prohibited from sponsoring campaign advertisements, and interest groups are not.
• Political parties represent broad arrays of issues, whereas interest groups are more likely to focus on narrow sets of issues.
• Political parties are more likely to focus on national politics, whereas interest groups focus on local politics.
• Political parties tend to have strength in particular regions, whereas the power of interest groups is more consistent across states.
• Political parties are required to disclose their campaign finance activities, whereas interest groups are not.

What is one effect of consumer driven media?

• It replaces content from professionals with content from nonexperts.
• It increases the quality of public debate by engaging so many people.
• It helps establish the importance of fact and research before sharing stories.
• It overcomes ideological divides and bring people together.

When none of the presidential candidates receives a majority of the votes in the electoral college, the winner is chosen by the

• A. Federal Elections Commission
• B. Supreme Court
• C. House of Representatives
• D. Senate only
• E. majority of the House and Senate combined

Which of the following have been found to be most successfully affected by campaigns?

• A) conversion
• B) reinforcement and activation
• C) reinforcement, activation, and conversion
• D) reinforcement and conversion
• E) activation and conversion

In response to the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (McCain-Feingold Act), the United States Supreme Court, in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010), ruled that

• (A) limits cannot be placed upon candidates’ contributions to their own campaigns
• (B) independent campaign expenditures by corporations and unions are protected by the First Amendment
• (C) limits on issue advertisements 90 days before an election are unconstitutional
• (D) limits on campaign contributions by minors are constitutional under the First Amendment
• (E) requiring endorsement statements in campaign advertisements is unconstitutional

When the soft money loophole was closed, how did money continue to find its way into political campaigns?

• A. through dense money
• B. through buying bulk purchases of books to avoid limits on campaign contributions
• C. through 527s
• D. though illicit contributions from foreign governments
• E. through the McCain-Feingold loophole

Citizens control of the government’s agenda is facilitated primarily by which of the following?

• A. elections
• B. interest groups
• C. political parties
• D. polling
• E. The Electoral College

Citizens who believe that their votes will have no effect on the outcome of an election have a

• A. high level of political efficacy
• B. high level of political participation
• C. high level of political interest
• D. low level of political efficacy
• E. low level of political cynicism