Week 5- Level 2 Challenge Option: Me, For Office? Why Not!

ME, FOR OFFICE? WHY NOT?

In order to stage a successful Congressional campaign at any level, it is important to have party backing. Parties (either at the state or national level) provide their support in various ways: their brand name, their human resources, their consultants, and most importantly, their financial resources. Given the 2012 success of the Democratic Party in retaining the presidency and key voter constituencies—blacks, women, Hispanics—the GOP is seriously reconsidering which type of candidate it should be endorsing and promoting for congressional offices. The Democrats, on the other hand, are more and more expected to support progressive issues, such as marriage equality and marijuana legalization. For this Challenge, you must sell yourself as a candidate to the Indiana Democratic or Republican Party. You will prepare a 3- to 5-minute video to convince the Committee that you are a serious candidate, that you know the district you are running for, and that you deserve their endorsement and full support for the upcoming Florida House elections. You can choose any Indiana State House district, CLICK HERE to "better know your district" Links to an external site..

Once you have completed the Week 5 Level 2 Challenge of your Choice, please turn in all appropriate documents to Assignments here.

PREPARATION

Research the following information, which you will use to create your 3- to 5-minute video:

Candidate Presentation: What is this campaign about? Who are you and what you believe in?
District and Issue Presentation: Is it an open seat, is there an incumbent to beat, do you need to go through a primary or try to scare off any possible opponent? What does the district care about?
Targeting – Coalition Groups: Which are the key voter groups in the district? Who will be more likely to support you and why? Who is the least likely to support you and why? Can you win without them?
Fundraising and Campaign Operation: How much do you believe you need to raise for this race? How are you spending it to target your prospective voters?
Voter Base Build up: How viable are you at this moment? How will your background (education, clubs, associations, work) get you instant support because they know you personally?
Sum up and Final Pitch: What is it that you are asking for and why? Why is the Party’s endorsement and resources so important and how will they help you win the race? Also, is there a big picture (gaining majority in the House if you win etc)?

ACTION

Create a digital vidoe, 3- to 5-minutes in lenght, that contains all of the information above. Make sure to save it as either a .WMV or .MOV file

REFLECTION

Answer the following question in a 7-sentence paragraph: How likely are you to ever seriously consider running for public office?  

SUBMISSION

You must submit all of the following as attachments in your Assignment:

Notes/Responses to the "Preparation" Questions
Your digital video (pay attention to the file size and video format)
Your 7-sentence reflection paragraph.

RESOURCES

Title	Indiana Division of Elections
URL	http://www.in.gov/sos/elections/index.htm Links to an external site.
Annotation	Prospective candidates need to be familiar with the district they run in; turnout, partisan registration, demographics. Indiana’s Division of Election is a valuable resource for county-level and district level information that are directly available through its website, such as socioeconomic breakdown (census data).

Title	Indiana Public Media
URL	http://indianapublicmedia.org/news/politics/ Links to an external site.
Annotation	Indiana Public Media consists of news articles, blogs, press releases, political links that are all about Indiana politics; the issues, the debates, the legislative sessions. State-specific issues, in combination with national issues usually shape the candidates’ platform even at the state district level. The Pew Center offers great reports on the impact of key national issues Links to an external site. (economy, hyper-partisanship, presidential approval) on public opinion.

Title	Indiana Division of Elections Campaign Finance Database
URL	http://campaignfinance.in.gov/PublicSite/Homepage.aspx Links to an external site.
Annotation	Candidates and incumbents are very careful when setting fundraising goals, depending on previous elections’ spending from the candidates of both parties. The Indiana Division of Elections Campaign Finance Database Links to an external site. documents the candidates’ fundraising operations per quarter. This is also a great resource of what type of donors give money to which candidate based on party.

Title

New York Times “The Election Unit”

URL

http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/27/our-election-2012-unit-an-overview/ Links to an external site.

(Links to an external site.) Links to an external site.

Annotation

The New York Times blog did an overview of the 2012 elections in 4 parts, from candidate presentation to campaign strategy, to “who do you think should win” overview. The candidates’ personal background, financial capabilities, endorsements, campaign strategies and issue platforms are evaluated in order to determine which one is “the best fit”. Such summaries can be critical reminders when one is trying to pitch for a candidacy by using his/hers most strong points.

Title

“The Changing Face of Political Campaigns”

URL

http://library.thinkquest.org/07aug/00103/strategies.htm Links to an external site.

(Links to an external site.) Links to an external site.

Annotation

There is no such thing as a perfect recipe to run a successful campaign, as there is no such thing as the perfect campaign operation in terms of human and financial resources. It all depends on the candidate’s character, his/her team, the opponent, as well as the district itself. Candidates use different strategies to reach different voter groups; young voters prefer the Internet over newspaper editorials or television for example. Low budget campaigns invest in door-to-door operations depending on the layout of the district, and the availability of time and people.

RUBRIC

	No credit	Below expectations	Meets expectations
Research	The student conducts incomplete research that fails to adequately address the research questions in the Preparation section of the Challenge.	The student conducts enough research to superficially address all research questions in the Preparation section of the Challenge.	The student conducts thorough research, thereby addressing all research questions in the Preparation section of the Challenge.
Video pitch	The student made a pitch that is incomplete and unconvincing.	The student made a that is asking for the Party’s support, without making a strong case about why it is important to the candidate himself/herself, but also to Florida politics.	The student made a thorough pitch consisting of what type of support the candidate needs; a convincing argument is made as to why the Party should endorse and why this race is important.
Reflection	The student did not complete the Reflection portion of the Challenge.	The student provided a thoughtful response to the prompt that was less than 5 sentences in length.	The student provided a complete and thoughtful response to the prompt that was at least 5 sentences in length.