Campaign Semester provides Occidental College students with an opportunity to learn about political campaigns and elections through first-hand experience.  It will provide students with a full semester of college credit (16 units) for volunteering full-time in a Presidential or U.S. Senate campaign during the Fall 2008 semester. Students can volunteer for a Republican or Democratic campaign, or a “minor” party if the campaign is set up to adequately supervise volunteers. 

      This is perhaps the first national election since 1960, certainly since 1968, that has triggered such a high level of  excitement and engagement among young Americans. As such, it will be a history-making and generation-defining election.  Young people have been volunteering and voting in the primary campaigns at unprecedented levels. The presence of a woman and an African American among the major party candidates reflects an important milestone in American political history.   

     Moreover, we are at a point in our history where our nation seems to be holding its breath, trying to decide what kind of country we want to be.  The fall presidential election promises to be a spirited, high turnout contest that will provide voters with a clear choice over different policy agendas.  Similarly, there are many key races for Congress occurring in locations considered “swing” or “battleground” states and districts; the partisan balance in both houses of Congress is at stake. The outcome of these elections, too, will have a major impact on the nation’s future. 

     As part of Campaign Semester, students are expected to work full-time (at least 40 hours a week, although in reality they will probably work many more hours) in a presidential or Senate campaign of their choosing for 10 weeks during the Fall semester. If they select a presidential campaign, they will be working in the field (not in the national headquarters) in one of the key 10 or 12  “battleground” states. If they select a U.S. Senate race, it should also be in a “swing” or “battleground” state, where neither of the major two parties has a decided advantage and the outcome is likely to be close. This will guarantee an exciting campaign that will likely generate considerable media interest, funding, and high turnout. Students’ participation will involve a wide range of activities, involving voter registration, turnout, volunteer coordination, media relations, and many other aspects of a typical campaign.  In most cases, the campaigns will help students with finding housing.   

     After Election Day, students will return to the Occidental campus and participate in a seminar, as well as an independent study course, for the remaining five weeks of the Fall semester. Professors Dreier and Heldman will conduct the seminar and supervise the independent study projects.

 Courses 

     Students participating in Campaign Semester will register for the following three courses:        

Politics 295 Seminar on Political Campaigns

     The course, which will take place during the last five weeks of the semester and meet four times a week, requires students to explore theoretical and applied concepts pertaining to United States political campaigns. More specifically, students will examine the role of money, media, candidates, interest groups, leadership, gender, race, and political parties in terms of who wins and loses elections. Learning will take place through assigned readings, professor lectures, guest lectures from campaign experts and candidates, and peer dialogues. Student learning will be assessed by their contribution to the classroom experience (discussion, dialogue), discussion of assigned readings, and examinations. Enrollment limited to students participating in the Campaign Semester Program. 4 units.

 Politics 296 Campaign Fieldwork Internship

     Students will participate in the daily activities of a campaign for President or U.S. Senate in a key “battleground” state for 10 weeks. Students will gain experience in campaign politics and gain an understanding of how a national presidential campaign or a statewide U.S. Senate campaign is operated. Students will learn about political strategy, voter contact and turnout, messaging and polling, communications, volunteer recruitment and team-building, fundraising, and other key aspects of campaigns. The internship will involve working full-time (a minimum of 40 hours a week) from the first day of class until Election Day.  Campaigns involve long, hard days. The staff that students will work with will typically be working at least 12-16 hour days. Although students are required to work at least 8 hours a day, they are likely to work more.

     As part of the Campaign Fieldwork Internship, students will be required to read two books about political campaigns. Students will be required to keep a daily log of their activities and maintain an internship journal that will be handed in at the end of the 10-week internship. The journal will describe their activities (including the projects they work on, campaign meetings and events, relationship of the campaign to the media, and of constituency groups), the internal dynamics and work of the campaign, the different roles and tasks of staff and volunteers in the campaigns, the way the media reports on the campaign, the students’ reflections on these matters, and, at the end, a summary of the campaign strategy and outcome. Students will be required to email the supervising Occidental faculty member at least once a week about their activities and reflections. The students will be supervised in the field by a campaign staff member.

    Students will participate, through teleconferencing, in a two-hour course meeting with other students and faculty three times during the semester. Students, who will be working in different parts of the country, will stay in touch with each other, as well as with the faculty, through Moodle, a web-based course management system. The system allows faculty members to post readings, facilitate discussions, and give and receive assignments. Students in various parts of the county will thus form a virtual classroom and on-line learning community. Some students may wish to document their experiences on the campaign trail, observe events, and interview staff and volunteers, by making videos. If so, these should be posted to the faculty and other students via the internet. Enrollment limited to students participating in the Campaign Semester Program.  8 units.

Politics 297 Independent Study: Political Campaign Analysis

     This course entails production of a 25-page research essay addressing a major question pertaining to campaigns in American politics. Each student will work with Professor Dreier or Professor Heldman to craft a high-quality research paper that enters the academic debate on their selected topic, incorporates extensive secondary data and existing research, and presents original analysis based on the student’s campaign fieldwork.  Enrollment limited to students participating in the Campaign Semester Program.  4 units.    

Summer Reading

     During the summer, students will be expected to read two books and a number of articles to help them prepare for their Campaign Semester experience in the fall.  The two books are: 

Stephen Wayne, The Road to the White House 2008

Mark Halperin and John Harris, The Way to Win: Taking the White House in 2008  

     The articles are subject to change but will include those listed below. These articles offer background and insight about some of the day-to-day realities of the campaigns for President and U.S. Senate. They focus on some of the candidates, their staffs, the media, the role of the internet, the role of money, the political parties, the key issues, public opinion, key interest groups, voter turnout, the youth vote, and other matters.  The dynamics of political campaigns change quickly, but there are some fundamental concepts that are always important.

Brownstein, “The First 21^st Century Campaign,” National Journal, April 19, 2008

Dann and Brownstein, “Fast-Fowarding Network Politics,” National Journal, April 19, 2008.

Semendinger, “The New Media as the Message,” National Journal, April 19, 2008.

Anburajan, “Obama’s Auteur,” National Journal, April 19, 2008

Cohen, “Juggling Gavels,” National Journal, April 19, 2008

Barnes, “Online Fundraising Revolution,” National Journal, April 19, 2008.

Bai, “Who Lost Ohio?” New York Times Magazine, November 21, 2004

Sokolove, “Can Barack Obama Capture the Lunch-pail Democrats?” New York Times Magazine, April 6, 2008

Wallace-Wells, “A Case of the Blues,” New York Times Magazine, April 30, 2008

Green, “He’s Not Joking,” The Atlantic, May 2008 

If you are interested in the role of youth in this and previous elections, we recommend The Good Citizen: How a Younger Generation is Reshaping American Politics by Russel Dalton;   Youth to Power: How Today's Young Voters are Building Tomorrow's Progressive Majority by Michael Connery; and/or Is Voting for Young People? by Martin Wattenberg.  

Preparing for the Campaign Semester experience

     During the summer and through the fall election period, students should stay informed about both the presidential campaigns and the Senate campaigns.  Before heading off to Virginia, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania,  Minnesota, and the others states, students should learn about the demographics, the campaigns, the issues, and the candidates in their chosen states.  In particular, here are some topics to focus on:  

      Demographics, Economics, and Geography:

     What are the demographics of the state?  What is the state’s overall population? What are the major racial and ethnic groups in the state? What are the income and occupational groups? What is the poverty rate? Has the economy in the state been improving or declining? Has the state undergone any significant economic or demographic changes in the past decade or two – or the last few years? What are the major problems facing the state? What are the trends, including such issues as unemployment, home foreclosures, and personal bankruptcies? What are the major industries in the state? Are they expanding or shrinking?  What are the key cities and metropolitan areas? How many people live in cities, suburbs, and rural areas?    

      Voting Trends and Interest Groups:

     How many registered voters are there in your state? When is the deadline to register to vote before the November election? What are the campaigns and parties doing to register more voters? Are they targeting certain demographic groups, or certain geographic areas of the state, to increase registration? What was the overall voter turnout in your state in the last presidential and Senate election? Did voter registration and turnout increase, decrease or remain the system in the 2008 primaries compared with four and eight years earlier? Does your campaign expect voter turnout to increase or decline in November? Why? Is your state considered a “blue,” “red,” or “purple” state? Since 2000, have the majority of voters in the state voted for the Democratic and Republican candidate for president and for the two Senate seats? What percentage of registered voters are registered as Democrats, Republicans, other parties, or independents?  What are the party affiliations of your state's Congressional delegation, its two Senators, its Governor, and its state legislature? What are the key interest groups in the state that are supporting candidates, registering voters, encouraging members and others to vote in November? These could include farmers groups, business groups, labor unions, faith-based groups, groups that support or oppose gun owners’ rights, pro- and anti-choice (reproductive rights) groups, civil rights and community groups, environmental groups, veterans groups, and others. Which groups are supporting your candidate and how are they doing so?  

      The Campaigns and the Candidates:

     Do you know the background and biography of the candidate your are working for and of his/her opponent? If your candidate is an incumbent, what is her/his voting record on important issues? Is your candidate considered a liberal, moderate, or conservative? What are the key issues in the campaign? Are they national issues or local issues? Are they about foreign policy, the economy, social problems, or something else? What do the polls indicate voters are concerned about? What are your candidate’s and his/her opponent’s views on the key issues? How much money has your candidate’s and opponent’s campaign raised so far? Who are the major contributors in terms of groups, industries, interests? How much are they spending on staff, TV and radio ads, direct mail, and other things? How many local offices does your campaign have in the state?  Where are they? How is your campaign recruiting and training volunteers? How is it using the internet?  What is your campaign doing to reach the voters? How is it using such methods as door-to-door canvassing, the internet, direct mail, TV and radio ads, public events and rallies? In your campaign targeting certain groups – young people, union members, church-goers, evangelicals, Black or Latino voters, women, seniors, etc? How? What are the key themes/messages of your candidate’s and his/her opponent’s TV and radio ads?   Are there other tight races in your state – for Governor or Congress or local office – that might help increase voter interest and turnout?  

Sources of Information

     To stay abreast of the Presidential and Senate campaigns in each state, as well as the general political environmental and climate, there are many sources of information. The most important are the major newspapers in each state. Students should identify the major daily papers in their state and read them regularly. Most will have free websites.  The major national newspapers – New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal – will have regular articles and analyses about the national and state campaigns.  The weekly newsmagazines – Time, Newsweek, U.S. News, and the British weekly, The Economist – provide regular coverage of American politics and elections. 

     There are many sources of information about the demographics and political background of states. The U.S. Census, which has demographic profiles of each state. (Look under American FactFinder on the U.S. Census website).  

     Students should become familiar with the Congressional Quarterly (CQ) Politics in America and the National Journal Almanac of American Politics. They have websites and the hard copies are available in most libraries, including Oxy’s. Both have profiles of each state and of current members of Congress.   

       Project Vote Smart (http://www.vote-smart.org) has information on voting records, rankings by interest groups, campaign contributions, and other facts about each Congressperson.

       The League of Women Voters in each state and city may have a website with information about the state and about the current candidates and their campaigns. 

       The Center for Responsive Politics is the best source of information on campaign contributions to candidates for President and Congress. http://opensecrets.org 

      The  National Journal  (http://www.nationaljournal.com/njonline)  and  CNN (http://www.cnn.com/Politics and http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008) are good sources of information about political trends, campaigns, polling information, and other information. 

     There are dozens of websites and blogs about American politics, and the politics in particular states, from many perspectives.  Here are a few: 

http://www.realclearpolitics.com

http://www.cqpolitics.com

http://www.politico.com

http://www.cookpolitical.com

http://www.dailykos.com

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/politics

http://www.futuremajority.com  (a blog focusing on young people and politics) 

     Finally, the U.S. has a wide variety of publications (and now websites) that are often called “opinion” magazines, that look at politics from a particular ideological perspective.  It is useful to read publications from different viewpoints, which helps sharpen one’s analysis and understanding.  Here are some of the best “opinion” publications, each of which is available on-line: 

Conservative: Weekly Standard, American Spectator, National Review

Liberal: New Republic, Washington Monthly

Progressive: The Nation, American Prospect, The Progressive  

Monitoring the Media 

     There are a number of good websites the monitor media coverage of campaigns.  Some of the best include: 

Fact Check (http://www.factcheck.org) – a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, this website monitors what the campaigns and candidates say in their speeches, interviews, and ads 

Columbia Journalism Review Campaign Desk (http://www.cjr.org/campaign_desk) – a project of the Columbia University School of Journalism, this website, written by journalists, monitors how the media are covering the campaigns on a daily basis. 

Media Matters (http://mediamatters.org) – liberal 

Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (http://www.fair.org) – progressive 

Accuracy in Media (http://www.aim.org) – conservative