Rachel F.'s AP US Govt. Blog

1. According to the research, who is more likely to become a lobbyist, a member of the House or the Senate? A higher percent Senators retire and become lobbyists. The numbers of the Senate also show more of a oscillating pattern because there are fewer Senators retiring each year, making small changes quite influential on the percentages. 2. Why were Congressmen less likely to become lobbyists in the 1970s and 1980s? Lobbying in general was much less popular and lucrative, and it only really grew starting in the 1990s. 3. Why does this research likely underestimate the revolving door? They can only track the number of registered lobbyists, but there are many who do work that is almost identical to the tasks of lobbyists but are not registered. 4. Why do you think committee chairmen are more likely to become lobbyists?   They have more experience working with a variety of lawmakers and are better at pushing policies than congressmen who tended to follow rathe...

1.  What was the overall general finding of Broockman and Kalla’s analysis of campaign activities? Campaigning basically has no effect on people's general election choices. 2.  What two time frames did Broockman and Kalla analyze in their study? They looked at within 2 months of the election and also at longer than 2 months before the election. 3.  At what rate did they find that people were actually persuaded with campaign activities close to the election? The rate was about 1 in 800 people reached was persuaded. This is almost 0. 4. How were the results different in the study between activities months before the election, and those that occur close to the election day? Campaigning has almost no chance of persuading people when it is close to the election because almost everyone has already decided who to vote for, often based on parties, and cannot be moved by  these methods. Earlier, campaigns are more effective in changing opinions, but ...