The Campaign Game

Students are divide into mixed ability groups of 4 to 5 students. Each group is assigned a fictional Congressional Candidate. The students will know what each candidate stands for, and have a biographical history of each Candidate (See Following)
Longtime democratic congressman James Freedman has announced he will not seek reelection in the fall. This has opened the race to be a competitive one. This district is split with 30% Democrats, 29% Republican, and the remaining independents. Your task is to get your candidate elected.
The Candidates
Candidate 1 – Republican, John Smith-50 year old white male. John has been a lawyer in the local community. He started his career working in the prosecutor’s office where he had the reputation as a fair prosecutor who was tough on crime. Most recently he has been a high profile successful defense attorney. He is a member of several local service organizations and is well known for his charitable work around town. John is also a well-known conservative; he supports lower taxes, a strong military, and believes government should cut back on social spending and become more efficient. This is John’s first time running for political office.

Candidate 2 - Democrat, Mary Kasonovich-46 year old white female. Mary is a former kindergarten teacher who has spent the last 8 years as a member of the state legislature. She has been a champion of social calls, leading the effort for school reform including early childhood education. She is a tireless worker for the homeless, and is well known for her efforts to reform health care and treatment for the elderly. Mary believes that government has a role to play in leveling the playing field and giving everyone an equal opportunity. She believes that military spending should be done in an efficient manner.

The Issues
The country has been in a recession for the last few months. Unemployment has been high; recently there have been signs that things are improving. This district has been for the most part spared by the recession, basically because it has always been poor, and things couldn’t get much worse. The local public schools are in bad shape, and the local industry has been in decline for years. On the other hand this district has always been known as one of the most patriotic in the state, and is proud of its heritage.

Students are to use the given information to decide on issues their campaign will focus on. They are then to prepare a video taped positive and negative campaign ad. This unit is culminated with students doing a document based question titled "Should Negative Campaign Ads Be Banned. ( This DBQ is available on request)