Chapter 5 - Elections, Political Parties, And Lobbying In Texas

Question 1

Secretary of state

Answer 1

One of the few official state wide positions filled by gubernatorial appointment in Texas, is the chief election officer of the state

Question 2

Election administrators

Answer 2

Are responsible for registering voters; determining voter eligibility; designing ballot and assuring their accuracy; and selecting and maintaining voting devices

Question 3

Precinct chair

Answer 3

Is elected for a two-year term during the parties precinct meeting, usually held after the party‘s primary election in March of even numbered years. Organizes party voters in the precinct; encourages interested party members to register to vote; attempts to increase party member turn out on election day; and in some Texas counties serves as an election judge

Question 4

County chairs

Answer 4

Are also elected to two-year terms during the party‘s primary election. The task of county chairs resemble those of precinct chairs only at the county level, and they are also responsible in most counties for fundraising and receiving formal filings for candidates to appear on the ballot. Currently county chairs of four political parties are listed through the Texas Secretary of State office: the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, the Libertarian party, and the Green party.

Question 5

County executive committee

Answer 5

Is comprised of the county chair and all precinct chairs. The committee works to promote the parties candidates and interest at the county level.

Question 6

Open primary system

Answer 6

In open primary states, voters must register to vote but they are not required to register with a specific party prior to the primary election

Question 7

State executive committee

Answer 7

The election of each parties state executive committee occurs at the party state convention usually held in June of even numbered election years. Delegates to the state convention convene in meetings based on the state Senatorial district (Democrat) or state representative districts (Republican)

Question 8

State party chair

Answer 8

Is then elected to lead the state executive committee and provide state leadership for the party. The state party chair and executive committee are leadership and policymaking positions, and in Texas both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party have professional, full-time, paid staffs to assist them in performing their duties

Question 9

Closed primary system

Answer 9

Only voters who have registered with a specific party in advance of election day may vote in the party’s primary. Such states including Arizona, Louisiana, and New York

Question 10

Straight party voting

Answer 10

One option to vote one by one for candidates and select candidates from the same political party

Question 11

Ticket splitting

Answer 11

Select candidates from different political parties

Question 12

Straight ticket voting

Answer 12

Is simple and requires a voter to merely show up at the polls and punch their party straight ticket option at the top of the ballot there by casting an automatic vote for all their parties candidates in every race. Because straight ticket voting requires a voter to have very little knowledge of the candidates and their positions, the option was illuminated in almost every state and, in the 2015 and 2017 Texas legislative session, became a hotly contested issue in Texas politics

Question 13

Political parties

Answer 13

Seek to influence the operation and control of government by electing its members to important government offices. The goal of political parties is to win elections and thereby control the personnel and operations of government.

Question 14

Interest groups

Answer 14

Focus on a specific issue or set of issues in their attempts to influence government by encouraging policymakers to promote their interest through government policies and programs. Interest groups frequently endorse candidates they believe will support their interest when in office they do not seek to control the operation of government by directly putting forth political candidates as do political parties

Question 15

Campaign finance committees

Answer 15

Charged with raising and donating money to the party’s political candidates. campaign funds are used by the parties candidates to advertise their campaign and pay for a staff to assist them in their bids for election or reelection

Question 16

Lobbying

Answer 16

Interest groups rely on donations from their members and use lobbying as means to gain access to policymakers.

Question 17

Political action committees (PACS)

Answer 17

Interest groups may also bundle their funds with that of other interest groups to create political action committees. PACs attempt to influence government by giving money directly to candidates or by engaging in issue advocacy

Question 18

Issue advocacy

Answer 18

Involves spending by interest groups, individuals, and corporations to promote a specific campaign issue rather than a particular candidate

Question 19

Grange

Answer 19

The Texas grange, while not formally an interest group as we now understand the term, was a powerful farmers organization in the late 19th century that played important roles in both the constitutional convention of 1876 and encouraging legislators to pass legislation after the Constitution was ratified. Articles in our current state constitution requiring low salaries for public officers, homestead protection, railway regulation, and restrictions on the state’s taxing power are all due to grange influence on the document. Current Texas laws concerning public education reflect the Grange’s strong dedication to improving education in the state including free and uniform textbooks, nine-month school terms, consolidated rural schools, a scholastic age of 18, and the availability of vocational courses.

Question 20

Membership interest groups

Answer 20

Are private groups whose members are individual citizens or businesses

Question 21

Non-member groups

Answer 21

Represent individuals, single corporations, businesses, law firms, or freelance lobbies

Question 22

Government organizations

Answer 22

Represent local governments as well as state and federal agencies

Question 23

Factions

Answer 23

Groups of self interested individuals who join together to promote their common interests. emerged soon after the American revolution in the form of the federalist and the anti-federalists who sought to influence the framing of the United States Constitution.

Question 24

Third parties

Answer 24

Such as the populist party, progressive party, and the Libertarian party have also played a role in American and Texas politics. While the number of votes for third-party candidates in Texas have rarely but occasionally outnumbered vote to gained by candidates from the two major parties, third parties have been able to influence politics and government by redirecting political attention toward issues that the dominant parties have ignored, overlooked, or downplayed especially during times of economic crisis or transition

Question 25

Greenback party

Answer 25

Formed in Texas in response to what its members saw as a growing “cult of the confederacy“ and adherence to a lost cause. Greenback sought to focus political attention on pressing social and economic issues such as legal tender, the establishment of a tax-support education system, and curbing the power of the railroads

Question 26

People’s party

Answer 26

(Or Populists) 1880-1890s. Was an agrarian reform movement that evolved from the Greenback parry, the Grange, and the Farmer’s Alliance. It became the most successful third-party movement in Texas history. The People’s Party platform included demands for the preservation of land from large landowners, regulation of transportation, and an increase of the amount of money in circulation. The People’s party did represent a successful coalition of Anglo small farmers, blacks, and labor that proved important to Texas politics at the turn-of-the-century and instrumental to the rise of other reform groups in Texas in the 20th century

Question 27

Party platform

Answer 27

Political parties advocate and publicize their positions through a party platform. A party platform is a formal set principles and goals generally accepted by the members of the party and presented to the public as a statement of the parties positions and believes on political issues. Platforms allow parties to recruit members who share the parties beliefs about how government should be organized and how policy should reflect the party’s political, social, and economic agenda.

Question 28

Grassroots efforts

Answer 28

At the local level, party activities most often involve grassroots efforts and activities led by ordinary citizens who are in close proximity to their neighbors. Closeness allows party members the opportunity to perform important grassroots functions such as holding face-to-face meetings and door-to-door campaigns, organizing social activities, and surveying public opinion about the party and it’s candidates.

Question 29

Whig party

Answer 29

(Then known as the American, or know – nothing party) sides with Maribeau B Lamar and strongly opposed annexation, while the Democrat sided with the pro-annexation Houston. After Texas joined the union in 1845, the Whig party dissolved and the issue of annexation was replaced with the issue of secession

Question 30

Unionist party

Answer 30

(The Opposition) The Unionist party held strong anti-secessionist sentiment and supported Texas remaining in the union. In 1859, unionist party candidate swept the majority of the statewide elections – including the party’s candidate for governor, Sam Houston, who had since returned to Texas and declared allegiance to the unionist party. A convention for state secession met in January 1861, and voted to secede from the union. The Texas unionist party collapsed and Houston’s long-standing reign over Texas politics abruptly came to an end.

Question 31

Yellow dog Democrats

Answer 31

Which derives from the saying “I’d vote for a yellow dog if he ran on the Democratic ticket,” became common in the south in the early 20th century to describe Democrats who are so loyal to the party they would vote for Democratic candidates even if they dislike their views in political positions. The term later came to refer to Democrats who held more moderate to conservative views particularly in terms of economic policy.

Question 32

John G Tower

Answer 32

The only viable Republican candidate in the race, defeated conservative Democrat William A. Blakely who had been appointed to fill Johnson’s Senate seat until an election could be held. Towers victory was seen by some to be an electoral fluke and others to be the beginning of two party politics in Texas. Hindsight demonstrates the latter to be correct. The first republican elected to statewide office since reconstruction, tower was re-elected the United States Senate in 1966, 1972, and 1978. His years in the Senate allowed him to connect the Texas Republican Party to the national party, and the state party to local Republican candidates. Towers electoral success caused the Democratic Party membership to rally around John Connally, a moderate to conservative Democrat, in his successful run for Texas governor in 1962.

Question 33

Smith v. Allwright

Answer 33

The parties long-standing resolution that only whites were allowed to vote in the Texas Democratic primary had been struck down by the United States Supreme Court in 1944. Previous courts had held that the Democratic Party was a “voluntary association“ that could prescribe its own membership rules; but, in Smith the court ruled that parties were agents of the state and excluding people from membership in the party based on race was a violation of the United States Constitution

Question 34

Poll tax

Answer 34

After the Smith decision, the conservative state party leadership stepped up it’s use of the poll tax in an attempt to deter black voters from participating in primary elections

Question 35

24th amendment

Answer 35

In the United States Constitution was ratified prohibiting poll taxes in federal elections

Question 36

“Dirty Thirty”

Answer 36

Was a bipartisan group of Texas legislators that pressed for the investigation of the Sharpstown stock – fraud scandal. Texas speaker of the house Gus Mutscher, Who had been named in the scandal, retaliated against the dirty 30 by blocking legislation introduced by the groups members. Despite Mutscher’s attacks, members of the group including Democrats bill bass, price Daniel, Junior., And John Hannah, and the Republicans William J. Blithe, Junior., Tom Craddick, and Jim Earthman, continue to press for an investigation.

Question 37

William “Bill“ Clements

Answer 37

Won the governors race in 1978. Clements victory as the first Republican governor of Texas since reconstruction was due in part to a split in the Texas Democratic Party after Attorney General John Hill Junior defeated the incumbent governor, Dolph Briscoe Junior in the Democratic primary

Question 38

Blue dog Democrats

Answer 38

Emerged to describe Democrats who had crossed over party lines and voted for Reagan and his policies in the 1980s

Question 39

Ann Richards

Answer 39

Was elected governor in 1990

Question 40

Kay Bailey Hutchison

Answer 40

In 1993 Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison secure the second Senate seat from Texas making her the first woman elected to the United States Senate from Texas, and the following year, republican George W. Bush defeated Richards in the gubernatorial election.

Question 41

George W. Bush

Answer 41

Gubernatorial victory over popular incumbent Ann Richards in the 1994 election marked the second time a Republican held the governors office since reconstruction.

Question 42

Tom Craddick

Answer 42

In 2002, the Republican Party won control of the Texas house making Tom Craddick the first republican speaker since reconstruction

Question 43

Unified government

Answer 43

Is a political situation in which both chambers of the state legislature as well as a governorship are controlled by the members of the same party. It allows the party in control to more easily pass laws that fit their legislative agenda since potential opposition by minority party members of the legislator diminishes due to sheer number of votes, and reduces the likelihood that a veto by the governor will be overridden by a legislative majority that holds membership in the governors political party

Question 44

Redistricting

Answer 44

After appointment is performed by the national Congress, state legislators have the responsibility of dividing the states into national congressional districts as well as into relevant state districts. The Texas House passed a bill in 2001 to draw new districts for the state house and after the state senator rejected the bill the house assigned the task of redistricting to the legislative redistricting board (LRB).

Question 45

Rick Perry

Answer 45

Texas Lieutenant Governor Rick Perry assumed the governorship of Texas when governor George W. Bush was elected president of the United States in 2001. His ascendancy to the governor ship would begin a historical record of Perry being the longest serving governor in Texas history – a period stretching continuously from 2001 until 2015.

Question 46

Father’s Day Massacre

Answer 46

At the conclusion of the 2001 legislative term, Perry vetoed 79 bills in one day, commonly referred to as a Father’s Day massacre.

Question 47

Texas model

Answer 47

The legacy of Republicans dominating Texas for roughly the past two decades has included a strategy referred to as the Texas model.

Question 48

Abortion

Answer 48

Read from sheets

Question 49

Supermajority

Answer 49

Republicans achieved a two out of three supermajority in the Texas house of representatives in 2010. Achieving a super majority allow Republican members to dominate the processes and agenda of the chamber.

Question 50

Campus carry

Answer 50

The first regular legislative session held after the election of current Texas governor Greg Abbott in 2014 resulted in the governor signing into the law a bill allowing campus carry. Campus carry allows individuals with the appropriate licenses to bring concealed handgun’s on public college and university campuses.

Question 51

Open carry

Answer 51

During the same 2015 session, the state legislature passed an open carry bill which allows licensed Texans to openly carry handguns.

Question 52

Minority party

Answer 52

Republicans have remained dominant in state elections throughout the 21st-century. No Democratic Party candidate has won any statewide election, and Democrats have consistently been the minority party in state politics.

Question 53

Sharpstown Stock-Fraud Scandal

Answer 53

Centered on charges that state officials had made profitable bank financed stock purchases in return for passing legislation to start by the financier, Houston businessman Frank W. Sharp.

Question 54

Texas constitutional convention of 1974

Answer 54

Failed by three votes to approve a proposed new constitution for Texas voters to consider.