Government 317 (Fall 2001): first paper assignment
This paper has two parts.
Part I: Pick a congressional (i.e., U.S. House) district in the 2000 election in which the incumbent ran for reelection. For three individuals and three PACs that contributed to the incumbent sometime during the two-year campaign period (1999-2000), explain what interests apparently motivated each individual and each PAC to contribute. Investigate the incumbent's committee memberships and roll call votes, special interest group ratings, federal expenditures in the district or other concrete facts to construct plausible arguments regarding the contributors' motivations. It may be very difficult to decide whether a contributor has benefitted from any particular federal expenditure, either before or after the election, so don't despair if you can't pin down such information--but also don't give up too easily. For individual contributors, the individual's employer (or occupation) as recorded in the Federal Election Commission (FEC) Itemized Contributions data files will almost certainly be the best evidence regarding what material concerns the person is bringing to the campaign.
Part II: Use your findings from Part I, relevant material from course readings and other information as you see fit to discuss whether contemporary House campaign finance enhances or diminishes the effectiveness of the House as a representative body. Be sure to make it clear what you mean by effective representation. Include discussion of the most important ways that campaign finance and elections interact, or maybe conflict, to affect the quality of representation through the House.
The paper should be no more than 15 double-spaced ``typed'' pages in length. The paper is due in class on Thursday, October 4. Use normal citation formats for bibliographic references. Be sure to include the date of access along with the URL for any citations to web pages.
IMPORTANT: You must let me know as soon as possible which district (and the incumbent there) you plan to study. To choose a district you may find it helpful to consult the Election Returns web sites, just to get a sense of the range. Please email your selection to me (wrm1@cornell.edu), preferably no later than Tuesday, September 11. I will allow only one person to study each incumbent--first come, first served. If I haven't received your district choice and approved it before the paper is due, I may not accept your paper (especially if someone else got approval for the district you end up writing about). You may work together to gather information.
Some web sources with information that should be helpful for this assignment are listed on the syllabus. Either the FECInfo site or the opensecrets site is probably essential for finding information about contributors. The Congressional Directory site has information about House Members' committee memberships during the 106th Congress. The Project Vote Smart site has extensive information about interest group ratings of House members, among other useful information. Thomas is a comprehensive portal to information about Congress. There you may in particular find information about bills, including which bills each House Member sponsored or cosponsored, and roll call votes. The Consolidated Federal Funds Report site has information on annual expenditures by the U.S. Government in geographic local areas. Other web sources listed on the syllabus may also be helpful to you. Some of the web sites have corresponding publications on paper that are available through Cornell libraries. Sometimes the paper publications have more information than the web site, sometimes the reverse is true. Of course you are free to consult any other sources you think may help your investigations.