Presidential Television Advertising Effects and Democracy.

Every four years presidential candidates devote months and hundreds of millions of dollars campaigning for the highest office in the land. Some question whether these presidential campaigns actually make a difference. In 2000, the Bush and Gore campaigns provided a golden opportunity to empirically assess campaign effects because both candidates focused their campaigns on a set of "battleground" states. 2000 NES data indicates that those who lived in "battleground" states had significantly more issue knowledge and issue salience than citizens from other states. Because this kind of targeted campaigning is encouraged by the Electoral College, with its winner-take-all rules, the data show that the Electoral College has a demonstrably negative effect on representative democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]