Campaign Audio from PRX

Comfortably into the general election now with race and religion having drifted from the headlines. But they are still issues in many battleground states. West Virginia stands out as an example of how difficult it will likely be for Obama’s campaign to deal with this problem in Appalachia. Scott Finn of West Virginia Public Broadcasting filed this report soon after the May state primary, where poll results showed how race and religion affected the outcome.

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You can check out all of  PRX’s election audio on race and religion here.

As another election approaches, a politicized debate is raging about voter fraud and voter suppression, in which neither side can agree on the nature of the problem. Susan Q. Stranahan reports that the real question remains unanswered: Are the systemic problems of the last two presidential elections likely to recur when the presumptive nominees, Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, square off in November?

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In this third report from the Center for Public Integrity’s The Buying of the President series, Stephanie Mencimer, a reporter for Mother Jones, examines dirty tricks in politics, including recent rumors that Barack Obama is a practicing Muslim. Who are the opposition researchers or tricksters who dig up this dirt? Her investigation attempts to answer these questions and more.

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PRX has partnered with The Conversations Network for our election podcast called ’08 Conversations. The latest one was about the female vote which has always been important, but the 2008 Presidential candidates have found women to be an electoral hot commodity. Given that polls find many to be both independent and undecided, both Obama and McCain are in full court woo to win them over.

Below you can listen to what the candidates are saying about women. Then we have Susan Kottler’s take on the 2008 Presidential Bake-Off Cookies.

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Back in the dark ages–1970something–the pols in Washington thought it would be a grand idea to bring law and order to campaign financing.  The result?  More loopholes for questionable money to slip through to candidates running for office.

In this second installment covering the Center for Public Integrity’s report on campaign spending, Sara Fritz, a veteran journalist who helped pioneer the campaign finance beat, discusses Section 527 groups and other independent organizations, who spend millions of dollars on advertisements and other election activities.

PRX has it ready for air here and more will be coming all summer long.