The Politicization of State Judicial Elections: The Effects of New-Style Campaigns on State Court Legitimacy in Kentucky, 2006

Résumé 0

This study had three major subject areas covered by the data collection. These subjects included general political questions about the respondent's views on issues such as freedom, the respondent's personal voting habits, and political campaign advertisements respectively. Respondents were asked about the frequency of their political discussions with friends, dealing with opinions that are extremely different from their own, the value of freedom including free speech, the government's role in creating and implementing laws, and majority wants vs. minority rights. The respondent's personal voting habits section included questions pertaining to feelings asked Kentucky residents how they felt about the Kentucky legislature, Supreme Court, Christian fundamentalists, anti-abortion activists, and pro-abortion activists. These questions also asked about the Kentucky court system in general, the press in Kentucky, insurance companies and other large businesses. Additional questions asked about the three branches of government, specifically, if respondents knew how each branch worked and its role in checks and balances on the American government. Kentucky citizens were asked about lifetime appointment for judges, serving a specific number of years dictated by terms, and whether Kentucky judges had a lifetime appointment or were subject to terms. Citizens were further queried about their elected judges in terms of how they vote for their judges, and whether or not controversial issues and left-right self-placement plays a role in their decisions. Another topic was the importance and relevance of the Constitution and whose interpretation should matter (the people vs. judges). Political campaign advertisement questions asked about advertisements in terms of their fairness. Specifically, questions asked about advertisement effectiveness in terms of whether the advertisement made the respondent more or less likely to vote for a certain candidate. Demographic and other background information includes age, gender, ethnicity, highest grade or year of school completed, political affiliation, religious affiliation and participation, and television viewership.