Government 317 (Fall 1999): first paper assignment
Pick a congressional (i.e., U.S. House) district in either the 1996 or 1998 election. For three individuals and three PACs that contributed to either the Democratic or the Republican general election candidate sometime during the two-year campaign period (1995-96 or 1997-98), explain what interest apparently motivated each individual and each PAC to contribute. Investigate incumbents' committee memberships and roll call votes, 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. 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.
The paper should be no more than 12 double-spaced ``typed'' pages in length. The paper is due in class on Thursday, September 16 (note that this is later than the date indicated on the syllabus). 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.
Some web sources with information that should be helpful for this assignment are listed on the syllabus. The FECInfo site is probably essential for finding information about contributors. The Congressional Directory site has information about House Members' committee memberships. Thomas is a comprehensive portal to information about Congress. There you may in particular find information about bills and roll call votes. The LOCIS database that is accessible through the Library of Congress Online Catalog site is a good way to find out what bills each House Member introduced or cosponsored. The Consolidated Federal Funds Report site has information on annual expenditures by the U.S. Government in geographic local areas (hint: to get annual totals broken down by program, be sure to get the Detailed Report for local areas you may have looked up). 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. [A very useful site omitted from the syllabus is http://www.vote-smart.org/.]
IMPORTANT: You must let me know as soon as possible which district you plan to study, and for which election. To choose a district you may find it helpful to consult the Election Returns (1998) web site, just to get a sense of the range. In general the assignment will be much easier to do if you choose a district in which the incumbent ran for reelection instead of an open seat race. Please email your selection to me, preferably no later than Tuesday, August 31. If too many people propose to study the same district, I will ask some to make another choice--first come, first served. You may work together to gather information, but no two papers should discuss the same contributors to the same candidates.
Walter Mebane