Public Campaign

An organized effort to influence the election of candidates for office, and the results of referenda (also called political campaigns).

Political campaigns in the United States are subject to federal and state laws that attempt to ensure fair [Page 419]elections. Laws govern campaign financing, advertising, corruption (including bribery and coercive voting), and speech. While open debate is encouraged, false claims and misrepresentations in the media are forbidden. Campaign violations may be prosecuted in the courts, and/or a legislative body may refuse to seat the winning candidate.

Political campaigns use mass media to communicate, adapting to each format in turn as they developed, from mass meetings in the 19th century to mass-circulation newspapers, radio, television, and the most recent arrival, the Internet.

New media have been used in political campaigns since the late 1990s. Candidates have Web sites describing their positions, biographies, and voting records. Fund-raising organizations enable donations to be made online. E-mail and text messaging are being used to reach potential voters. The Kerry versus Bush presidential election in 2004 was the first presidential campaign to make use of blogs. Interactive Internet media enable voters to quickly and easily express their opinions to campaign staff. http://Moveon.org is one of the best-known grassroots-organizing campaign sites, which was started by two Silicon Valley engineers during the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal of 1998. For more information, see Bartels and Vavreck (2000), Kobrak (2002), and Roberts and Hammond (2004).