Revision & Exam Practice for the “legacy” A Level qualifications including:

• Edexcel (Unit 3C – Representative Processes in the USA, Unit 4C – Governing the USA)
• AQA (Unit 3A – The Politics of the USA, Unit 4A – The Government of the USA)
• OCR (F855 – US Government & Politics)

How to use these questions for revision and exam practice:

1. For long-answer or essay questions, plan a 4 paragraph response using the PEEACH paragraph structure (P=point, E=evidence, E=explain, A=argument, C=counter argument, H=how does this answer the question?)
2. Once you have completed your question, read the indicative content.
3. Using the essay criteria, colour code each criteria to show how successful you were at including this in your essay (red, amber or green)
4. There is also a space for you to add additional notes and/or examples that don’t appear in the indicative content, or add better explanations, or include additional, points from the indicative content.

‘Local factors are more important than national factors.’ To what extent is this true of the congressional midterm elections? (45)

Indicative Content

The outcome of the congressional midterms has always been decided by a mixture of local and national factors. In recent years, especially since the 1994 midterms and the Republican ‘Contract with America’, the national element seems to have
become more significant; parties have run national campaigns and the party out of the White House tries to make the election a referendum on the president.

Supporting the significance of national factors is the fact that the president’s party almost invariably loses seats in the midterms (1998 and 2002 were exceptions, otherwise only 1934 in the last century). As well as discussing factors which relate to specific elections, candidates can rewardably discuss general factors affecting congressional elections, such as the power of incumbency and the factors underpinning it, and the presence or lack of presidential coattails. Low turnout could
be cited as indicating a lack of high profile national issues which motivate voters during presidential elections.

National factors in recent elections have included:
 1998 – voters reacted unfavourably to Republican impeachment proceedings against President Clinton, leading to an unusual gain for the president’s party
 2002 – the aftermath of the September 11th attacks and the impulse to national unity also led to a gain for the president’s party
 2006 – the souring of the public mood over Iraq led to the Democratic takeover of both houses
 2010 – perception of Obama ‘big government’ (e.g. stimulus programme and ‘Obamacare’) a lethargic economy and energised Republican opposition led to the Republicans retaking the House.

Most candidates will concentrate on the 2014 result and the Republican retaking the Senate and increase of their majority in the House:
national factors
 President Obama’s low ratings – at 40% two weeks before the elections, lowest point of his six year presidency, combination of the economy and other domestic problems, e.g. flawed rollout of HealthCare.gov, aftermath of
Snowden disclosures, and foreign problems
 coordinated negative Republican message – Republican candidates campaigned on the ‘failure’ of President Obama, and promised to repeal health care reform, roll back new regulations on banks and Wall Street, and Stop the Obama administration’s plans to curb coal emissions
 flat economy – despite a notional recovery being underway, it was not being felt by most voters; in national exit polls, 45% cited the economy as their chief concernlack of Democratic message – Democratic candidates feared any association
with the president and his policies but had nothing positive to offer of their own
local factors
 carefully vetted Republican candidates – after defeats in 2010 in winnable Senate seats of candidates such as Sharron Angle in Nevada and Christine O’Donnell in Delaware (and Richard Mourdock and Todd Akin in 2012), Republicans made much more effort to select mainstream candidates and protect incumbent senators, none of whom were defeated in primaries
 successful local Republican campaigns – e.g. Joni Ernst’s ad in Iowa in which she described“castrating hogs on an Iowa farm” galvanised her campaign and helped her to victory in a previously Democratic seat
 disenfranchisement – new voting restrictions in 21 states depressed participation and in several crucial races in e.g. North Carolina, Florida, Kansas, and Virginia, the margin between the two candidates closely matched the numbers believed to have been deprived of the vote
 help from outside groups – the role of Super PACs could have been significant in tight races and e.g. made the Senate race in North Carolina the most expensive Senate race in US history, which the Republican Thom Tills won