AP Midterm 1 - Notes

how iowa supreme court is elected

• appointed by governor, then retention election

• list to governor, governor picks, after a year people of Iowa vote yes or no

• jb pritzker (D) - IL

• tim walz (D) - MN

• tony evers (D) - WI

• jim pillen (R) - NA

• kristi noem (R) - SD

• mark parson (R) - MS

neighboring governors of iowa

chet culver

• last democratic governor of iowa (2006)

• rare example of short tenured governor iowa

rob sand (auditor)

• only state elected democratic official in iowa

• college towns and cities is where democratic party finds success

nebraska

• what state has a unicameral, formally non partisan legislature?

• state senates and houses must be equal district based on population

• one chamber with 49 legislators

• elected by geography rather than party

Maine and Alaska

• 2 states with ranked choice voting

• (candidate A gets 49 votes, candidate B gets 47 votes, candidate C gets 4 votes. look at C’s voters’ other preferences

alaska, louisiana, california, washington

• what states have nonpartisan blanket primaries

• CA and WA = everyone on primary ballot. one vote. top 2 move onto general election

• AK = rank choices. get down 4 to candidates. then general election, then rank again, and get down to 1 candidate

• LA = same as other states, but if someone gets majority first, they don’t move onto general election. candidates don’t know if they are going to win right then or have to move onto another election

wisconsin territory

• what territory did Iowa belong to before the creation of Iowa territory in 1838?

• before this, it was missouri’s territory

sac and fox

• with what native american nation (s) was the 1832 treaty of fort armstrong signed, ceding eastern Iowa to non-native settlement?

moralistic, individualistic, traditionalism

• elazar’s political cultures

• theory: the differences we see across US can be explained by 3 cultures that happened with colonialism, migration, etc.

• In New England, moralistic culture because of Puritans

  • sundays are day off for people

• individualistic = middle of country, wasn’t settled for religious reasons. every man for themselves

• traditionalism = hierarchy society because of effects of slavery. elite few on top, everyone else is on bottom

hero and tolbert

• they find that in general, racial make-up of the state correlates with what Elazar was talking about with the 3 political cultures

bricker and lacombe

• people do have clusters of similar “political beliefs”

• states around us (WI is alot like IA)

• NE has cluster

• policies tend to diffuse along the ties and clusters of the states and people

confederalism

• relationship between states

interstate compacts

• most common interaction between states

  • each state is in about 25 of these

  • form of US law that has not been in Washington (reciprocal license: hunter, education license, boating license)

  • broad spectrum: sometimes they are meant to change law without congress

• ex.: quad cities metropolitan authority compact: IA and IL. public transit, new roads, landfills

• 9th amendment: states have right to make laws about certain things that are not expressed in Constitution

• commerce

federalism

• relationship between federal government and a state

• formerly layer cake, now marble cake

• based on pragmatic mixing of authority and programs among the national, state, and local governments

• most changes have been federal authorities down. can be federal government taking over by state. federal government can own state land

federal land

• land that belongs to the federal government, but is within a state but the state doesn’t have authority over it

• just under 1/3 of land in US is federal

• a lot of western states’ lands are owned by federal government

• most federal land is run by president and his people (department of defense, national park service, forest services)

  • us postal services = federal land

state constitutions

• generally restricting, rather than allowing

  • 9th amendment. anything not restricted by federal government can be legislated on by the state

• can codify policy

• ex. state constitutional restrictions for same-sex marriage

  • up until 2015: states had right to make any policy about marriage they wanted

  • constitutions have provisions that marriage should be between men and women

• things are written in constitutions that cannot be legally enforced

local government

• always subservient to state governments. but two broad types

• 1. home rule: charters grant municipal governments rights, often specific in state constitution

• 2. dillon’s rule: states have total control over local governments (townships)

  • named after iowa SC justice that ruled in a case against a county that brought to the state about whether or not county could make regulation different from the states

• usually, township governments are separate from city governments

state party policy

• majority and minority party, usually restricting majority party recognition to D and R parties

• usually, ballot access is guaranteed for major parties and more difficult for minor parties

• iowa legally has 3 parties: R, D, Libertarian

  • can have NPPOs = any group can be this with ballot description

state party organizations

• in general: county committees elect state committees; state committees elect national committees

• parties may also have precinct, municipal, legislative district, or congressional district committees

• parties may also have conventions at these levels: conventions are temporary, committees are permanent

  • iowa has county, congressional district, and state committees

    • caucuses are precinct conventions

    • legislative district conventions can also be called to fill vacancies

• each committee is led by a chair

closed primaries

• voters must be registered with party to vote

• sometimes voters aren’t allowed to change their party within 2 months of election date

• states where the 2 parties are quite competitive (FL)

partially closed primaries

• parties choose whether to allow unaffiliated voters to vote

partially open primaries

• legally closed, but voters can change registration on election day

• a lot like a closed primary BUT you can change political affiliation on the day of election

• iowa is partially open

open primaries

• any voter can participate in any primary

blanket primaries

• no party primary; all candidates on ballot together

• CA: for presidential primaries = closed

primary run-offs

• you can change your vote/party affiliation in the run-off election than what you voted in the primary election

political competition

• one-party dominance is usual in most states

• one-party dominance typically correlated with lower turnout (does dominance cause low turnout, or does low turnout cause dominance?)

• iowa predominated by R since 2021 but switches back and forth between party dominance

  • but there is not any true dominance in the state since great depression (R)

Political participation

• turnout correlated with wealth and education

• protestants turn out more than catholics, nonreligious people

• black and hispanic turnout increase with black and hispanic population and representation in legislature

• felons barred from voting while in prisons in 48 states

  • ME and VT are exceptions

  • All but 11 states automatically reinstated at some point

• Reynolds issued blanket restoration of voting rights to all non-homicidal felons in Iowa in 2020

voter ID laws

• little evidence that voter ID laws affect turnout

• some R have supported voter ID laws believing they reduce D votes

• voter ID laws probably have no effect on partisan turnout and have bipartisan support in the electorate

why iowa reading

• 1972: McGovern-Fraser Commission requires Dem primaries and caucuses to all registered Ds

  • Iowa’s 4 tiered convention system (precinct, count, congressional district, state) required early start

  • iowa caucuses came before NH primaries

• 1976: under liberal R gov. Robert Ray, state Rs open their caucuses to all registrants

• 1976: Jimmy Carter, then longshot, realized how IA win would get him attention

  • NH primary was considered “1st in nation”

  • carter wins: Iowa now considered “1st in nation”

    • Also won nomination of D party and then general election

    • not many people that have won IA caucuses have gone on to win the general election (only Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush and Barack Obama)

caucus night in iowa for democrats

• sounded a horn for redistribution

• group up and then count themselves

• heckling

caucus night in iowa for republicans

• prayed before

• in-person vote by secret ballot

• no redistribution: ballot counts are sent directly to state party for delegate allocation

traditional membership groups

• type of interest groups

• generally, dues-paying groups with set memberships

• some have party affiliations, some do not

• national organizations lobby a lot on state levels (state chapters, ABA is national, but lobbying is done by state bar associations)

• Ex labor unions, AARP, NRA, Sierra Club, homeowner's’ associations

institutional interests

• type of interest groups

• organizations with interest in lobbying, but do not exist for the sake of lobbying

• Ex. local governments, universities, businesses

  • almost every county and municipality (city of Ames)

  • local governments are involuntary membership group in a way. you don’t move somewhere to be a part of lobbying group

  • universities have big institutional interest (board of regents, state legislature, governor, etc. undergraduate student government)

• businesses are typically large (someone has a job to lobby state: Liaison)

associations

• type of interest groups

• groups of groups

• Ex. chambers of commerce (local and state), AFL-CIO, national federation of independent businesses (interest groups for small businesses)

• competing interests

lobbying

• attempting to influence government decisions

• typically looks like: talking to legislators, writing, emailing, outreach to executive officials, influence judges

common forms of lobbying

• taking legislators to lunch (this is sometimes illegal)

• crafting model legislation

  • american legislative exchange council has crafted a lot of model legislation

• model legislation: a bill with text that has been proposed. these are the things we want to put in the code of your state. legislators will oftentimes change the language of the bill

• uniform law commission

  • make sure control law are similar across the states

  • make sure you don’t break laws across states because some states have slightly different business law

election spending (for initiatives and candidates)

• form of advertisement

• direct ad!

• cy-hawk game (pro-nikki haley ads are a lot from different groups that back conservative candidates and businesspeople. they are from interest group that support her)

call your legislator ads

• form of advertisement

• popup when controversial legislation comes up

• really big when affordable legislation comes up

  • “reject obama care. tell your legislator”

• interest groups trying to influence you

energy stability area model

• energy: policy issue and change

  • active governments have more interest groups than less active governments

  • states with more electoral competition have more interest groups than other states

• stability

  • international analysis of interest groups

  • mainly invented to explain interest groups across the world

    • in US - stability doesn’t really matter (states don’t change that much)

• area

  • states with more population and bigger economies have more interest groups

contract lobbyists

• type of lobbyist

• lobby for no one in particular, just “on contract”

inhouse lobbyists

• type of lobbyist

• lobby for single interest group

• big interest groups (NRA, ACLU)

• most lobbyists are not inhouse

government lobbyists

• type of lobbyist

• like inhouse lobbyists but for governments

• usually also have some sort of accountability role (must testify before legislative committees)

private-individual lobbyists

• type of lobbyist

• you, if you contacted an elected official

• but generally, people with substantial time and resources and a strong personal interest

  • historically a large group, now less than 5% of lobbying activity

mass partisanship

• form of public opinion

• proportion of people in a state who identify with a political party

• for most of 20th century, most states had D majorities

mass ideology

• form of public opinion

• proportion of people in a state who identify as a liberal, moderate, or conservative

• for most of 20th century, most states had conservative majorities

• the word liberal has different meanings to different people

policy mood

• form of public opinion

• disposition towards government (usually government spending)

• how much should the government be involved in our lives?

• feelings about what the government should be doing

• varies over time, across states, across individuals

specific opinion

• opinion about a single issue or set of issues

• social issues tend to move around - support tends to increase over time (legalization of gay marriage)

• defense spending goes up with D presidency and down with R presidency

salience

• newspaper attention

• important well-known issues

• more coherent opinions about these issues

• education is more ___ in IA than in other places because of recent policies

morality policy

• debates over basic values in which at least one side portrays the issues as involving morality or sin

• sometimes called “social issues”

• ex. abortion, capital punishment, LGBTQ+ rights

do policies reflect citizens’ preferences?

• yes, but sometimes no

• social/morality policy generally reflect citizens’ better than economic policy (possibly because it isn’t salient)

submerged state

• the set of difficult to observe and complex policies that citizens lack consistent opinions on

• ex. earned income tax credit. not something that someone has consistent opinions on

congruence

• extent to which policy outcomes match policy opinions

• about half the time policies reflect the will of the people (they are typically social issues)

• morality policy

  • more of a correlation

• what impacts this?

  • gerrymandering reduces this

  • elected judges increases this

  • “checks and balances” reduces this (less centralized power. less likely power is going to respond to public opinion)

  • legislative professionalism increases this (legislators want to be responsive to opinion

direct initiative

• voters circulate a petition to put an issue on ballot

indirect initiative

voters circulate a petition to put an issue on ballot, except legislature has chance to create alternative measure to be voted on alongside voters’ proposal

popular referendum

• voters circulative a petition to repeal a law

  • MD and NM have this without initiatives

• used once in Arkansas to repeal soda tax

• mostly used for tax measures

• ends up on ballot

  • acts similar to direct initiative. limited things legislature has passed

• constitutional amendment = supermajority of petition (FL)

legislative referendum

• legislature refers issue to voters (every state has this. not direct democracy)

• ever votes on issue in IA or IL = we are voting on legislative referendum

• means for the legislature to give to voters the right to vote yes or no on an issue

populist era

• origin of initiative

• first state to adopt initiative = SD

• belief that common people have more wisdom than legislature (elites are inherently corrupt)

• last decade of 19th century

progressive era

• origin of initiative

• first time initiative was used = OR

• huge user of the initiative for policy making compared to the rest of the states

• belief that giving citizens lawmaking power would increase citizens’ political participation

• usually believe lawmakers and governments are good

the initiative process

proposal drafted by proponents, proposal submitted to state office (title assigned), proponents circulate petitions, state office verifies petitioners have signatures to qualify, voters vote

proposal drafted by proponents

• consulting with lawyers period

• any citizen can write up a proposal, but in general, most initiative campaigns don’t work this way

  • groups start meeting with lawyers and craft a piece of legislation to get what they want

proposal submitted to state office; title assigned

• almost always the secretary of state

• office can start messing with things

proponents circulate petitions

• longest and most important step

• usually takes months

• canvassers approach citizens to sign petitions

• trying to get registered voters to sign petitions

• states have different rules and laws regarding canvassers (sometimes they have to be registers, or can’t be felons, or a notary has to be present)

state office verifies petitioners have signatures to qualify

• most campaigns make sure they have more than enough signatures

  • people might accidentally sign twice, or might be out of state and accidentally signed it)

• state office will verify they are registered voters, and they meet the other requirements

voters vote

• in most states, the petition is then put on ballot for election day

• officeholders have discretion

  • sometimes they put initiatives they don’t want on the ballot on weird days/times

initiatives and interest groups

• interest groups have major incentive to be involved in initiative process

• initiatives allow interest group competition

  • medical association wants cap on amount of $ that can be given in lawsuits. ABA did not like this. pit against each other

• interest groups bankroll many initiatives campaigns

  • advertising increases voter knowledge about initiatives, as do interest group affiliations

initiatives and civil rights

• initiatives have been used by the majority to target stigmatized minority groups

• ex. same-sex marriage bans in the 2000s

• often (but not always) overturned or limited by courts

reynolds v sims

• requires equal representation in state legislatures (“one man, one vote”)

• usually

  • senate = bigger districts

  • house = county/smaller districts

senators serve longer terms than reps

• usually

  • senators = 4 years

  • reps = 2 years

lower

• most (but not all) states require the budget to originate in ____ chamber

• in practice, this doesn’t matter. budget negotiated beforehand. state senate still has to approve, state senate can still amend the budget

40 Alaska, 400 New Hampshire, 20 Alaska, 67 Minnesota

• lower chambers are always bigger than upper chambers

• lower chambers range from ___ (__) to __ (__)

• upper chambers range from ___ (__) to __ (__)

• as you move west = state legislature size gets smaller (most states haven’t changed their state legislature sizes since when the state was founded. populations used to be very small and just hasn’t changed)

population per state senator

• states with large populations = even if state senates are large, they are still going to represent a lot of people (CA)

population per state senator

• in general, the big states have more disparity but not always

• PA has so many reps and high population that it looks as KY which has small population

district magnitude

• in 41 states, all members are elected in single-member districts

• in 7 states, same legislative districts for both chambers

• each district elects 1 senator and 2 reps (3 “representatives”)

• ID and WA elect members by “post,” all other by “bloc”

bloc vote

• iowa does most local elections like this

• list of candidates: you have this many seats open, you can vote for up to this number of people

• issue

  • if everyone can vote for their bloc of candidates, in practice, every single person only represents the majority of people. no representation for the minority

legislative professionalism

• “the capacity of the legislature to act as an effective and independent institution”

• professional legislatures have: higher legislator salary, longer session, larger staff, your JOB is to be a legislator

• in general, larger states have more professional legislatures

• “traditionalistic” states often have less professional legislatures

fulltime, well paid, large staff

• type of legislature

• most professional

• 4 states = CA, MI, PA, NY

• you shouldn’t have outside work

full time lite

• type of legislature

• lacking in some sort of capacity

• 6 states: IL, WI, OH, MA, HI, AK

hybrid

• type of legislature

• some things they are good at. other things they are really bad at

• MOST STATES

• some sort of outside job

• IA = enough to get by, but not live comfortably. most legislators have outside jobs. one of biggest legislative staffs in the country (good)

part time lite

• type of legislature

• 10 states

part time, low pay, small staff

• type of legislature

• 4 states

redistricting

• originally, most legislatures redistricted themselves, with guidelines in state constitutions

• some states adopted redistricting “politician commissions” (commissions composed on non-legislator politicians) in the progressive era

• reynolds v sims overturned constitutional guidelines for redistricting

  • made district sizes equal. courts began to take active roles in redistricting. but, made gerrymandering easier

• some states have recently adopted independent redistricting commissions and constitutional redistricting guidelines

polarization

• historically, parties were less ideologically polarized in the states than in Congress

• in some states (especially south), intraparty factions were more polarized than state parties were

• In CA: parties have long been polarized (less likely to see R cosponsor D bill)

• IL: anti-establishment in factions. historically been very odd state in this way

1990s

• polarization has increased since ___

• decline in conservative southern D partially to blame

• aren’t many conservatives in D party

• moving away from center on both parties

• corresponds with general party polarization trend at all levels of government

iowa general assembly

• composed of two houses (senate and house of reps)

• 50 senators elected to 4 year terms. roughly half senate is elected every 2 years

• 100 representatives elected to 2 year terms (whole house all at once)

• every senate district is divided into 2 house districts

• every IA congressional district has 25 state house district

• sessions: 110 days in odd numbered years. 100 days in even numbered years

legislative process in IA

1. legislator files bill

2. bill referred to committee

3. committee pick subcommittee to vote on bill

4. committee then votes on bill. can recommend whole house vote or can transfer to another committee

5. funnel week (all bills not out of committee are dead)

6. scheduling: speaker/president decides when (if at all) to put bill to vote

7. debate

8. vote

9. if vote passes, round of debate and vote in other chamber (if leadership allows)

10. if passes, other chamber, signed into law. if amended, chambers have reconciliation committee draft identical versions to pass

leadership in the iowa general assembly

• house of reps

  • majority party = speaker, speaker pro temp, majority leader, and majority whip

  • minority party = minority leader and minority whip

  • speaker is actual majority leader and controls what bills are voted on

  • whip = whip legislators into shape

• senate

  • majority party = president, president pro temp, majority leader, and majority whip

  • minority party = minority leader and minority whip

  • president = actual majority leader

• lieutenant governor was president of senate until 1991 (in most states this is still true, NOT in Iowa)

current leadership of iowa legislature

• speaker of iowa house of reps: pat grassley (R)

• minority leader in house: jennifer konfrst (D)

• president of senate: amy sinclar (R)

• minority leader: pam jochum (D)

third parties in iowa legislature

• 2016-2019: david johnson elected as R but left party. Independent

• 1922: last time a legislator was elected as independent

• 1891: last time a legislator was elected as a member of a 3rd party

governors

• elected to 4 year terms (except in NH and VT = elected 2 years)

• 36 states (including IA) elect governors at presidential midterms

• 11 states (including MO) elect governors same time as president

• 3 states elect governors the year before presidential election

• 2 states elect governors the year after presidential election (maintain older systems)

gubernatorial

• In KY, LA, MS

• seems to be that whatever party wins ____ election, the other party is favored in presidential election

citizen and gubernatorial ideology

• strong correlation between citizen identification and gubernatorial position taking EXCEPT when looking at parties separately

• Ex. RI governor is D but is also pretty conservative and represents one of the most liberal states in US

• doesn’t seem like people get what they want once they select one party

pre-gubernatorial experience

• “penultimate office” before governorship for current governors

• not everything they have done, but what is the thing they did and were known for when elected to government

• 13 were lieutenant governors ***

• 8 US reps

• 7 state attorney general

• a lot of silly ones too

institutional power

• gubernatorial power

• veto power, term limits, executive type, legislative session length, control over appointments

• shorter legislature session = more executive power for governor

• executie orders (ICOE) = COVID

• in other states: responsible for all appointments

personal power

• gubernatorial power

• extent to which an individual governor can control state government, regardless of institutional power

• varies with election results, approval rating, personality, and state expectation of governor

election results

• gubernatorial personal power

• governor who wins election/reelection by ALOT has more power than someone who barely got elected. “these people trust me to do what is needed”

approval rating

• gubernatorial personal power

• higher rating = the people support me!

• doesn’t matter rating when elected, it is the current approval rating

• can grow this which grows personal power

personality

• gubernatorial personal power

• governors are people who are very charismatic

• can get their way because their personality tends to be more buzzy

state expectation of governorship

• gubernatorial personal power

• different expectation of what a governor should do and what role they can play in a state

• varies from state to state

• NE: Governor doesn’t do much and is not public figure

• South: Governors are institutionally weak, but in practice, there is expectation for the governors to be grandfatherly figure

veto power

• most governors have stronger ___ than presidents

• but they have “line-item veto”

  • allows governors to veto parts of legislation, allowing rest to be signed into law

• some states have “vanna white veto:” governor can block out letters within a word to change meaning of bill (common in WI)

  • will veto letters within words so it becomes something completely different

  • Ex. governor of WI (Thompson R)

    • appropriations to PBS: $50,000. he vetoed zeros

• gives governors HUGE influence in lawmakingt