Michigan politics

Election Paper Instructions This paper is about a political campaign for a Michigan State or Local political office. School board elections, city council elections, mayoral elections, state legislative elections, and state-wide elections for Michigan government positions are all good choices. U.S. House or U.S. Senate are not acceptable choices without special permission. Focus your attention on the political office, the way people are elected to that office, and the campaign that you observed rather than writing a lot about the particular individual. You will of course write a little about the person, but that is not the focus of your paper. In other words, I do not care how many children they have, their pets, or how much you admire your candidate. The purpose of the election paper is to acquaint students with the electoral process and the political structures in Michigan. The paper should be approximately 15 double-spaced pages, excluding attachments and a reference list--about 20 pages with the attachments. I don’t count pages. This is just a guideline. Students enrolled for their intensive writing requirement will write an additional 5 pages. Three parts of the final paper will be turned in and pre-graded in pieces. At the end of the semester, the full paper will be turned in as follows: Submit the earlier graded pieces with the suggested revisions that I made when I pre-graded it, plus all the sections that were not pre-graded. I will use track changes in Microsoft Word to provide comments, edits, and corrections on the first three sections when I pre-grade them. Correct any major omissions or errors. Highlight your corrections and additions so that they stand out. SUBMIT ALL SEVEN PARTS OF THE PAPER PLUS APPENDICES AND REFERENCES. YOU MUST USE MICROSOFT WORD TO WRITE THE PAPER. You can get Microsoft Office for free through the University C&IT. Instructions to download your copy are found here: https://tech.wayne.edu/software-hardware/microsoft-office.

I strongly recommend that you volunteer for the campaign that you plan to write about. This does not have to involve a lot of time – just an afternoon making phone calls or dropping off yard signs or knocking on doors with the candidate will help you write the paper. Sometimes candidates in a small, local election will let you interview them. You should also learn about the campaign through media coverage, such as newspapers, television and radio, as well as Facebook and other social media. (WSU Library provides you with access to archives of Detroit News and Free Press.) You will need to look at campaign materials, like brochures and flyers. You’ll need to become familiar with the county clerk or Secretary of State websites to

find election results, campaign contributions records, and other official documents. The following is an outline for the Michigan Politics Paper. Use the headings provided for each section of the paper. Use subheadings found in the rubrics for each of the three pre-graded sections. Part IA: The Candidates (2-3 pages) Name your candidate and the office he or she is running for. Who are/were the other major candidates? Very, very briefly describe the major candidates. (If there were many candidates, discuss only two or three major candidates) What were the one or two (three at most) major issues? How did your candidate get nominated or included on the ballot? For example, some offices require that candidates get citizens’ signatures to run, others allow people to pay a fee, for others the candidates are nominated at a party convention, sometimes there’s a primary election, sometimes there isn’t. Look in the Michigan Manual, your city charter, newspaper articles, ask at your local library for local candidates, also check the county or city clerk’s office for specific information—and cite those sources in your reference list Part 1B: The Office (2-3 pages) Describe the office the candidate is seeking. Be sure to include the following: 1) its powers, (What can the person in this office do?) 2) its benefits, (for example salary, health insurance, legal protection) 3) its limits, (What is the person in this office prohibited from doing—conflicts of interest, etc.), and 5) some history of the office (has it been held by the same candidate/party forever – did the position always exist)? For example: when was the city founded, and has the mayor always been elected in partisan elections? 6) Also, describe how candidates are elected to this office (partisan or nonpartisan elections, the top vote getters out of a long list, two major candidates facing off against each other . . .?

Part II. The District (2 pages) -- You should describe the geography, demography and past political behavior of the district (or city or county) from which the candidate is to be elected. SEMCOG and the U.S. Census Bureau are good sources for demographic information (ethnicity, education, income, home ownership). Look at a map of the district—if that’s appropriate. What is the past political behavior of the district? (turnout in local, state, national elections – partisan preferences in local, state and national elections – turnover in the office for the position you’re writing about – is turnout highly differential in different parts of the city/county/district)

Part III. The Campaign (2-3 pages)--What were the major events in the campaign? What media and other methods did candidates use to get their message across? (signs, handouts, brochures, bumper stickers). What groups supported your candidate? (list endorsements and major campaign contributions) How did these groups support your candidate (money, grassroots volunteers, newspaper endorsements, letters to the editor of the local paper, inviting the candidate to group meetings, issue ads, Get Out the Vote (GOTV), efforts, other). What groups supported his or her main opponent(s) (discuss one or two opponents only)? Part IV. Dollars Raised and Spent: (3 pages) What amount of money was raised and spent--totals? (Provide an appendix and discuss briefly in the text.) What were some of the major items your candidate spent money on? (Campaign contributions must be reported, so check the Secretary of State website state-level elections or the county clerk’s website for local elections or the candidate and his or her staff as a last resort. Some of these reports will not be filed with the Secretary of State until December, so if you’ve worked on a campaign, ask the campaign manager or the candidate who gave large amounts of money. You don’t need to list every $10 contribution, but the large donors are often interesting and reveal a lot about a candidate. The top 10 donors would be fine. Who are the major donors? Are they individuals or PACs or interest groups or political parties? What are the big expenditures? Was all the money spent? Is the campaign in debt Part V. The Expected Results (2 pages)--Who is most likely to win? What are the specific precincts or regions expected to go for each candidate? What are the areas of strength for each candidate? Is one candidate more active than others in the ground campaign or in paid or earned media and social media? Will the results be what was expected at the beginning of the campaign or will they be a surprise? Part VI-a. Analysis of the Election (2 or 3 pages) Why did the winner win? (This last question requires that you think about institutional factors (district composition—the map), issues and key events, money and support, GOTV, the nature of the office, the economic climate, name recognition, coat tails of others higher up the party ticket, etc.). We will have mentioned several of these sorts of factors during the class. Intensive Writing Students Only: Part VI-b. Analysis of the Election’s Contextual Meaning (4-5 pages) What does the campaign say about the current political culture of the state and the specific district in the campaign? How did the campaign exemplify the strengths or weakness of the political parties? How do you assess the role of interest groups in the campaign, and the role of wealthy people or other political and economic elites? Reflect on how the election results may affect policy issues that were raised in the campaign and policy issues that may become more important over the next two years (and may or may not have played an important role in the campaign). What have you learned about how voters

choose candidates in primary elections. Cite any outside research that you may bring into this intensive writing section. Part VII. Conclusions (1-2 pages)—How does what you have discovered about this election relate to what we have discussed in class? How does it confirm, challenge or extend what we have found? What did you learn by working on a campaign? Appendices The following is a checklist for the required appendices to be attached at the end of the paper: A. A list of the things you did to help the campaign. B. Or if you interviewed the candidate, provide a transcript or summary of the

interview.

C. A sample of flyers, brochures or other campaign material. If you’ve volunteered, you can just ask for an extra copy – or go help clean up the campaign office after the election, and you’re likely to have lots of extra copies, or pass out literature on election day and keep one copy for your paper. This year most of this might be online. But there could be mailed flyers, and if you volunteer you can ask that someone send you one. You could take a picture of a yard sign, for example.

D. A map showing precincts and the region in which the campaign occurred (city,

county, district . . . ). (Government offices may have these if the campaign does not.) If you’ve volunteered on the campaign, you can probably ask for some of these after the campaign is over.

E. The top five to ten campaign contributors, the top five to ten campaign

expenditures, and the total cost of the campaign. The amount the major opponent raised and spent. You should discuss some, perhaps all, of these in the paper, but list this as an appendix.

How I will grade the paper: 1. CONTENT

A. Did the paper cover each of the parts (1-7) clearly and incisively? B. Were the appropriate appendices attached? C. Were earlier comments and corrections fixed and the changes highlighted?

2. SOURCES A. How many sources? B. Was each source cited in the paper and the reference list?

3. WRITING QUALITY

A. Is English usage correct? B. Has the writer followed the rules of grammar, punctuation, and spelling? C. Clarity: How clearly written was the paper? How well organized was the

paper? Please use headings and subheadings to keep things organized.

** Suggestions to improve your grade on the paper** 1. Have someone check your grammar. Use the computer grammar checker. 2. Use section headings and subsections. Follow the outline AND use the rubrics. 3. Use topic sentences. 4. Answer all of the questions I have asked... Example: Few papers explained

exactly what the candidate must do to get on the ballot. Often students do not discuss candidates other than the one who was the focus of the paper. Discuss the opponent briefly, too.

5. Some people give a reference list, but do not cite from it in the text. Cite your

sources in the paper, and your interview or personal conversation with campaign staff counts as a legitimate source of information. Example of an in text reference (author year).

6. The title page should include: your name, the name of the class, the name of

the candidate, and the office he or she was pursuing. 7. Use a spell checker, human or computer, and please use the grammar

checker in Word.