Videos

Vote for Me: Politics in America

Vote for Me: Politics in America, an entertaining video series that looks at American culture as reflected in political campaigns across the United States. This series received the highest awards in broadcast journalism, a Peabody as well as a DuPont award. Although the series is eight years old, only the candidates and automobile styles have changed.

This four-hour series travels across the country showing how politics are really played in the U.S. It is entertaining, funny, and full of revealing behind-the scenes moments. If you want to show what America looks like, this is it. It's the perfect way for students of American politics to understand the campaign and election process, from the smallest precincts all the way to the White House.

Part 1 shows what candidates do, and have done, to get voter's attention. How well-run street organizations get out the vote in Chicago. A portrait of the master of person-to-person campaigning in Rhode Island. A desperate California gubernatorial candidate (1994) stages a 29-hour bus trip photo-op marathon. A New York "attack dog" consultant travels to Alabama to craft a negative ad campaign.

Then Part 2, studies what voters do to get politicians' attention. How a senior citizen's retirement haven turns out 93 per cent majorities for its candidates. The tough, revealing story of changing ethnic coalitions, where naked self-interest is the order of the day.

Part 3 looks at Louisiana teenagers in a mock-legislature and the intense small town politics of Johnson, Rhode Island to see where politicians come from.

And Part 4, a remarkable cinema-verite behind the scenes look at what it really takes to run for office in America. First-time-candidate from North Carolina Maggie Lauterer decides to run for Congress and has to learn how to beg for money on the phone, how to come up with 30-second policy soundbites, and how to try to run a clean campaign in the face of withering negative attacks. And we the viewers learn along with her, sharing her exhilaration and her setbacks.