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How good are you at political analysis, and at making your own independent judgments?
These projects should help you test your skills.
- Pick one Republican and one Democratic incumbent Senator or Representative
from Washington state. Using an Internet link mentioned in the issues chapter
of the Political Primer, find the list of special-interest group ratings for each one.
Compare the ratings, and discuss what they tell you about the two people's
political stands.
- Using the "Background Briefing"
and the polling chapter of the Political Primer as a guide, prepare
questions that might be used for a poll of students on issues of importance to
them. Try writing five questions in a biased fashion, and five other questions
in an unbiased fashion.
- Read the stories on the Seattle Times' Politics
page for up-to-date information about the elections.
- What can you learn by analyzing the selection of stories
in an individual race?
- Are all candidates given the same amount of coverage?
Should they be?
- Are they covered in a balanced manner?
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Can you detect any bias
for or against any candidates?
Discuss how useful these stories are in helping voters decide on the best person
for the job.
- This is a project you should do after the primary election.
Go to the state
Public Disclosure Commission's Web directory,
and pick the file 02.TXT. In that file, search or scroll down to the entries for
the Governor's race, where you'll find a separate entry for each candidate.
Record the amount of contributions and expenditures each candidate reported.
Then compare those numbers with the results of the primary election.
Do you see any correlation between dollars and votes?
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