Rachel F.'s AP US Govt. Blog

1. How many total Republicans in Congress have already announced that they will not run for reelection in 2018? 14 (12 House Republicans and 2 Senators) 2. How many total Democrats in Congress have already announced that they will not run for reelection in 2018? 3 (3 House Democrats and 0 Senators) 3. What is so unique about the discrepancy between these two groups? The high number of Republicans who are leaving suggests that they anticipate a wave of Democratic popularity. Their actions could contribute to such a Democratic trend. 4. What factors do the authors of the article suggest are behind these decisions not to run for reelection? Republicans may fear backlash against the whole party due to the unpopularity of Donald Trump. Some may just be getting old. Others may not want to face tougher elections now that the Republican party appears to be weakening. 5.  Why might the elections for those in "safe red districts" be more difficult than in rece...

1. What three observations did the study find about media outlets with a right leaning audience? These media outlets hard reporters who were less likely to challenge what the president said, offered fewer negative and more positive evaluations of Trump, and used fewer types of sources for the reporting. 2. How did right leaning media outlets and left leaning media outlets use sources differently? The right leaning media tends not to use Trump and his administration, outside experts, or interest groups. On the other hand, left leaning audience outlets used a variety of sources, with 70% containing two or more types of sources. 3. How much more likely were left leaning outlets to include negative coverage of Trump? Left leaning outlets were three times more likely to cover Trump negatively compared to right leaning sources. 4. How often did left leaning and right leaning outlets refute something said by Trump? It was 7 times more common in left leaning outlets than in...

1. What news events are being covered by major outlets as the same time as Hurricane Maria?  Other issues were a health care bill that failed to pass, Alabama's primary elections, and Trump's argument with NFL protests. 2. Use the first chart to estimate about how many fewer times Hurricane Maria & Puerto Rico are mentioned online than the hurricanes that hit the mainland US. It was mentioned about 5-6 times less than Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. 3. Use the second chart to estimate about how much less time was devoted to  Hurricane Maria & Puerto Rico in TV coverage than the hurricanes that hit the mainland US.  Hurricane Maria received less than about a third of the times or Harvey and of Irma. 4. Which two networks mentioned Hurricane Maria the most?  CNN and BBC 5. What do some cite as the reason for Puerto Rico being treated differently by the media?  Puerto Rico is a US territory rather than a state. 6....

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 ...

1. Why do conservatives want to hold this event at Cal-Berkeley? Perhaps they hope to change the minds of an audience that will listen to the ideas presented by the Free Speech Week speakers. More likely, they want to hold it at this school because it is considered a highly liberal environment that strongly rejects conservative ideas, so conservatives expect retaliation that will make their opponents look bad. 2. What is the initial position a public university should take when they get a request to host a speaker? They should allow them regardless of the speaker and how he or she is seen. They then need to consider the logistics of the requested location and time. 3. What are "content neutral" rules? These regulations prevent officials from telling the organizers to change their plans based on what point of view they are presenting. The decision must be based on other logical factors such as the capacity of the requested space. 4. In what ways might there b...

1. How popular were Clinton and Trump compared to past candidates for president? They are the least popular candidates on record. Trump is most disliked, and Clinton is second most disliked. The negative attitudes toward them led to campaigns where each candidate tried to make people hate the other candidate more rather than like him or herself more. 2. How much did minor party voting increase from 2012 to 2016? It increased significantly, with Stein and Johnson receiving shares of votes that were over 3 times more than in 2012. 3. How did Clinton's negative attacks on Trump, combined with minor party candidates, end up hurting her? These factors influenced people who preferred her to Trump to vote for the third party candidates instead. 4. How did Trump compare to Romney in 2012 among white voters? Trump did a little worse than Romney, pulling in 58% of the white voters compared to Romney's 59%. 5. How did Clinton compare to Obama in 2012 among the differ...