TEXAS GOVERNMENT: Becoming an Informed Voter – Researching Your Texas Delegation
The purpose of this paper is to provide practical application of material learned by developing concepts learned in the presentations. The body of the paper must be at least 6 pages (double spaced, 12-point font) and include subheadings as appropriate and necessary. In addition to the body, you must include a separate title page and reference page. Do not submit an abstract with this assignment.
Do not write the paper without carefully studying the related presentations. To achieve more than a passing grade, you must demonstrate a mastery of the presentations and factual information and incorporate those ideas into your paper. Naturally, stylistic points such as grammar and spelling will be considered in grading. Your paper must adhere to current APA format. Doing the minimum amount of work does not guarantee a perfect score.
The research paper has 2 steps. First, you will analyze the background of your legislative district and your State Representative. Second, you will analyze the political background of your state and your State Senator. Note that these are Texas State Representatives and Senators. Do not use members of your U.S. Congressional Delegation.
The first part will deal with your legislative district and representative; the second part will deal with your state and senator. Interest group scores may be found at Vote Smart.
Document to properly format this essay as you will be required to use formal writing with subheadings as necessary to address and elaborate on each of the following questions in paragraph form:
• What is the recent political history of your district and state?
• How has your state and congressional district voted in recent presidential and congressional elections?
• Can your district or state be considered to be leaning Republican or Democrat?
• Are the political parties relatively even, or does one party dominate the elections?
• Does your district have a long tradition of supporting one party, or has it been changing in recent years?
• How did your representative and senator come to power? (Thoroughly describe their backgrounds.)
• How do the interest groups (ADA, ACLU, ACU, CC or FRC) rate your representative and senator? (Note: If the Christian Coalition score is not available, you may substitute the Family Research Council score. Include the exact scores from each of these groups. The rationale for this is explained in the presentation.)
• Based on these ratings, would you classify your representative and senator as conservative or liberal? Justify your answer.
Do not submit your paper in the form of a series of questions and answers. Organize this information into a standard research paper (paragraph form with level headings) utilizing APA format. Consult the grading rubric to make sure that all the necessary information has been included.
IT MUST BE THE TX LEGISLATION NOT THE US GOVERNMENT
