Using NewsHour Extra Feature Stories

Overview: NewsHour Extra features stories can help students identify and interpret key issues in current events. This activity anticipates one class period, but the follow-up essay might be assigned as homework, or in another period.

Warm Up: Use initiating questions to introduce the topic and find out how much your students know.

Main Activity: Have students read NewsHour Extra's feature story and answer the questions on the reading comprehension handout.

Discussion: Use discussion questions to encourage students to think about how the issues outlined in the story affect their lives and express and debate different opinions.

Follow-up: Students can write an 500-word editorial on the topic expressing their views and send it to NewsHour Extra [extra@newshour.org] for possible publication.

Evaluation: Students are graded on their answers to reading comprehension questions and/or their editorial.

Story: Presidential Campaign Fundraising Heats Up, 10/20/03
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/july-dec03/campaign_10-20.html

Initiating Questions:

1. Who is running for president in 2004?

2. Why is fundraising important for political candidates?

Reading Comprehension Questions: (click here for printout)

1. Who is the latest candidate to join the Democrats in running against President Bush in 2004? How much money has he or she raised?

Retired General Wesley Clark has raised $3.5 million so far in his campaign.

2. Why do presidential candidates need to raise so much money?

Candidates need to pay for television ads, newspaper ads, radio ads, posters and billboards, promotional material, and transportation. They need to pay their staff, and while they may have volunteers, those volunteers often cost money even if they're working for free - at the very least they need office supplies and a pizza party or two.

3. Which Democratic candidate has raised the most money so far? How much has the candidate raised?

Ex-Governor Howard Dean of Vermont, who started out with a small budget and little name recognition, has used grassroots campaigning and the Internet to raise $25.4 million this year -- including a Democratic record-breaking $14.8 million in the last three months.

4. Explain the differences between a primary and a caucus.

Each state has its own laws for nominating presidential candidates, but there are two basic methods -- primaries and caucuses. A primary is much like the general election, in which qualified voters go to a poll to cast a ballot for a candidate within one party. A caucus requires voters to show up as a group at a polling location at a scheduled date and hour. The voters listen to speeches and debate the candidates before an informal vote or head count is taken. Both processes choose delegates to represent a candidate at the national convention this summer.

5. Explain President Bush's advantages in the upcoming election?

President Bush has raised $83.9 million this year. He also has a big advantage in that he is an incumbent - he's already in office. Unlike his Democratic rivals, he doesn't have to worry about a tiring primary that will drain his funds - the Republican Party appears likely to automatically pick him as their nominee.

Discussion Activity (more research might be needed):

1. Can people without a lot of money win national elections in America? Why or why not?

2. Do you think the primary system is a good way to choose a presidential candidate?

3. How has media, such as television and the Internet, impacted candidates' abilities to fundraise and get their messages out?

4. Research the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. How might this law make the election of 2004 different from 2000?
(suggested resources: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law/july-dec03/scotus_9-8.html http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/cfr_3-20-02.html)

Write a 300-500 word essay on any of these topics providing clear examples. Send your completed editorial to NewsHour Extra [extra@newshour.org]. Exceptional essays might be published on our Web site.