1) The congressional district’s or state’s political culture. Examine the economic, social, geographic, and historical features that shape a region’s politics (e.g. the common historical experience of slavery, plantation agriculture, a colonial economy, and the Civil War in southern states, the impact of German and Scandinavian immigration in states of the upper Midwest, the clear geographical dividing line between areas east and west of the Cascade Mountains in Washington and Oregon, etc.). How might the region’s political culture shape the candidates’ campaign strategies?
2) The congressional district’s or state’s major interest groups, both historically and in the contemporary era (e.g. California—the Southern Pacific Railroad, Silicon Valley companies, the Sierra Club, etc.; Michigan—Ford, General Motors, United Auto Workers, etc.) and how they might attempt to shape the campaign.
3) The congressional district’s or state’s political party organizations (both state and local), their relative organizational strength, and their importance in shaping district or state politics (e.g. Washington and Oregon tend to have weak party organizations dominated by issue-oriented activists; Pennsylvania and New Jersey tend to have strong state and local organizations dominated by pragmatic and professional activists, etc.). What will be the role of the state parties, if any, in the campaign?
4) The congressional district’s or state’s party-in-the-electorate. Examine the types of voters who tend to identify with the major parties, and how party coalitions in the state have evolved over time (e.g. compare the voting patterns of southern whites, in a state like Louisiana, or northern urban Catholics, in a state like Illinois between the New Deal party era and the post-1968 period, etc.). What types of coalitions might the candidates try to put together in your state or congressional district?
5) Historical voting patterns in the congressional district or state, and explanations for these patterns (e.g. differences between voters in the upland and lowland south, west and east of the Cascades in Washington and Oregon, Hispanics and Anglos in California, whites and blacks in South Carolina, etc.). This ties in with # 4.
6) The role that outside sources (e.g. “Super PACs,” the national parties) might play in bringing in money and other campaign-related resources to the district or state.
Sample Solution
