2016 Presidential Primary Information

(Everything You Wanted to Know About How We Pick Presidential Candidates, But Were Afraid To Ask)

Cut and paste the following questions into your own document.  Please answer in complete sentences and paragraphs.  Please number your pages.  Use a 12 point font and standard 1 inch margins.  Provide a separate cover page with name, date, assignment and class. Anytime you have to look up the answer to a question, either on the web or in a book, including our textbooks, you need to footnote the source.  Standard Turabian Footnotes and Bibliography are required.    Don't know how?   See this.

Please provide a copy of the source, and note on the copy, in the upper right hand corner, which footnote(s) the source supports. Present the copies in footnote order.  There is a copy of the grading rubric for this assignment on the webpage.

Me and My State and Local Government 

About Me:

1.       Name:

2.       Major:

3.       Birthday (with year):

4.       Birthplace:

5.       Place I consider “home”:

6.       Full address with zip code:

7.       Describe “home”. (Wonderful, awful; growing, dying; rural, small town, urban, sub-urban; highly recommended, you-must-be-kidding, etc.) 

8.       Are you planning to go back?

9.       What do you want to be when you grow up?

About My State:

Background

10.   Name:

11.   Motto:

12.   Year of Statehood:

13.   One to two paragraph historical summary:

Constitution

14.   Date of our most recent constitution:

15.   Number of constitutions:

16.   We amend the constitution via the following methods.  (Be specific about vote requirements, such as 2/3 of each chamber to propose and 51% of voters to ratify.):

17.   Length of constitution:

18.   How many amendments?

19.   Character of changes to the constitution: (How often, how drastically, and by what method, if you have more than one method, have you amended it?  I don’t mean the changes from one full constitution to the next full constitution, I mean amendments.)

Executive Branch

20.   Governor and party:

21.   Other state-wide elected officials -Name, title and party affiliation:

22.   Governor's cabinet – Name, title and selection process (appointed or elected?) for each.  Please note, this is a different list than question #21.  If your state does not have a formal cabinet system, then use the five largest state agencies.

23.   Length of term, term limits for governor:

24.   Description of veto power (Line item?  How long for review? Over-ride requirement?):

25.   Structurally, do you have a “strong” or “weak” governor?  Why? (Note - these terms have a particular meaning - look them up in Saffell if you don't know what they mean.  Use the language of your textbook when answering this question.):

Legislative Branch

26.   Name of your legislative branch (General Assembly, State Legislature):

27.    Name of each chamber (House of Delegates, House of Representatives, Senate):

28.   Presiding Officers for each chamber (Title and person occupying the position):

29.   Person who actually RUNS each chamber, if different than the presiding officer (Title and person occupying the position):

30.   State Representative:

31.   State Senator:

32.   Number of State House Members:

33.   Size of House District by population:

34.   Number of State Senators:

35.   Size of Senate District by population:

36.   Annual or Biennial, Length of Session, Starting Date of Regular Session

37.   Is your state legislature considered full time or part time?:

38.   Personal staff (those who work for an individual member):  

39.  Institutional staff (those who work for the committees or the individual chambers):

40.  Total number of staff:

41.  Large or small professional staff (Are the above numbers relatively large or small?):

42.   Which of Saffell’s models describes your legislature- citizen, professional or hybrid?  Why does your state fit this model? (See pages175-177.)

Judicial Branch

43.   Judicial selection model:

44.   If elected - partisan or non- partisan:

45.   Judicial retention model:

46.   Draw or describe the structure of your state court system:

Political Questions

Party in control of

47.    House:

48.    Senate:

49.    Governor’s Office:

50.   Recent shifts in control (last 20 years or so):

Hot button issues – Provide one to two paragraphs each, including context and comments.  Extra Happy Faces for bill numbers!

51.    Most pressing issue:

52.    Second most pressing:

53.   Looming on the horizon:

54.   We’ve argued over this one forever:

Direct Democracy (Give petition requirements and voting margin requirements if applicable.)

55.  Do you have Constitutional Citizen’s Initiative?

56. Regular Citizen’s Initiative? 

57. Referendum?

58. Recall?

Education

59.   Control and oversight of  local schools - Do you have city, county, or independent districts?:

60.   Main source of local education revenue, such as property tax or sales tax? Main source of state education revenue? :

61.   Name the most important recent court suit or case regarding education in your state.   Briefly describe it.

62.  Name the most important recent policy decision regarding education in your state.   Briefly describe it.

Local Government:

City (If you live outside of the city limits pick the closest city and answer the first three questions for this section.)

63.   What form of city government? (Council/manager, etc.)

64.   If you have a mayor, do they work under a "weak" or "strong" mayor structure? Why? (Again - these terms have a particular meaning - look them up in Saffell if you don't know what they mean.)

65.   Name of your Mayor and/or Manager:

66.   Name of your city council member or equivalent (If elected at large, say so, then name all members):

67.   Briefly describe the structure, quality and programs of your city government.  What services do they provide?

County

68.   What form of county government? (Commission, Quorum Court, etc.)

69.   If in Arkansas, name your County Executive or County Judge.  Otherwise, name of your Chief County Commissioner, County Mayor or equivalent:

70. Name your Justice of the Peace or the County Commissioner who serves your particular area.

71.   Briefly describe the structure, quality and programs of your county government. What services do they provide?  What is the reputation of your county government?

February 5^th, 2013