With its ambitious election year coverage, public television demonstrated its singular place in the media landscape; a national institution, it is also an active presence at the community level. Not only did PBS go beyond the sound bites to the substance of the presidential campaign, but public television stations broadened the impact of these national programs for their regional constituencies by producing local programs focused on statewide issues and candidates.
   For example, while American voters met the presidential candidates through in-depth biographies on Frontline: The Choice 2000, public television stations in 13 states created biographical documentaries of candidates in their key state and local elections. Alabama Public Television focused on the candidates for Chief Justice of the state's Supreme Court, while Prairie Public Television in Fargo produced a dual biography of the candidates in one of the most dramatic gubernatorial races in the nation, in which a recent cancer survivor fought to become North Dakota's first female governor.
   MacNeil/Lehrer Productions' PBS Debate Night in October offered Congressional leaders the opportunity to present their parties' views on public policy issues directly to the public. More than 50 public television stations built on this programming by offering live debates and other programs spotlighting nine Senate races and 36 House races as well as gubernatorial, state senate and ballot initiatives. Expanding the election year collaboration with NPR, many public radio stations carried audio simulcasts of the local public television station programs.
   WCNY in Syracuse hosted its third Old Fashioned Political Rally, incorporating political discourse from soapbox discussions to Congressional debates. Rocky Mountain PBS's Colorado Campaign 2000 included debates on important statewide issues and ballot initiatives, such as gun control, abortion waiting periods and tax cuts. Stations in nine states from New Jersey to Nevada produced Senate debates, while candidates from 36 House races got a chance to present their views directly to the public through their local public television station. In most cities, these debates were also featured interactively on the stations' Web sites.

   With the ability to offer audio samples, streaming video clips, photos, and resource links, the Internet proved to be the perfect place to expand the content of the Jazz series. Visitors to the Jazz Web site at PBS.org/jazz apparently thought so, too. At last count the site - which garnered special honors from five major national sites, including Yahoo!, Netscape, and USA Today Online - had received more than two million unique visits.
   PBS news programs take special care to ensure that diverse points of view are represented, and public television stations pursued this same goal with their election year production and community outreach. Including the growing Hispanic segment of the population was the focus for several stations. For their broadcast of a Senate debate, WPBT in Miami included an editor from Diario Las Americas on the panel of journalists raising issues for the candidates. WPBT also invited debate questions via the Web, and promoted the program through targeted newspapers to solicit participation from the Hispanic community. Idaho PTV also focused on Hispanic voters, reaching out to a minority community that has become the state's largest. In preparation for a broadcast debate featuring congressional candidates, Idaho PTV worked with the Idaho Commission of Hispanic Affairs to have moderated discussions with the Hispanic community to identify issues of importance. To involve Hispanic students, Idaho PTV's outreach director Lynn Allen went into the classes of Weiser High School teacher Todd Nelson and invited them to raise questions that should be asked of the candidates. Issues from the minimum wage to health care to decreasing the high school drop-out rate among Hispanic students emerged. "These kids have bought into the American dream," Nelson says, "and they're locked out of it. This experience taught them they have a voice and they can make it heard by politicians."
   Engaging the teens who are tomorrow's voters was a key goal of the Democracy Project on the Web, where online technology broadened the reach and enabled PBS to deliver curriculum materials to teachers. The "Build Your Own Campaign" contest was part of a package of curriculum materials that PBS's online education department created for secondary school teachers to help them interest their students in the unfolding presidential campaign, raise their awareness of the political process, and develop their critical thinking skills. Tammy Waller, who teaches government at Mountain Ridge High School in Glendale, Arizona, says "TeacherSource on PBS.org is a really good resource. The material is so user-friendly for the teacher and for the students that I refer back to that Web site quite frequently to develop my curriculum."
   Using the "Build Your Own Campaign" lesson plans, Waller introduced her students to the complexities of running for office -- from budgeting a campaign to fielding polls. Working in teams, her students researched issues to devise election platforms, allocated campaign resources and created campaign ads for twelve imaginary candidates. Public television station KAET in nearby Tempe, Arizona, sent a camera crew to report on the student-generated presidential campaigns and aired the segment one evening on their daily public affairs program Horizon. One of Waller's student teams, with a candidate named "Warren Peace," beat 86 other entries to win the national contest and a trip to Washington. "All the students who participated got so interested in the real campaign because of the work they had done for their candidates," says Waller. "As part of their research they watched The NewsHour regularly," she added, "and they are big fans of Jim Lehrer."