Mountain County and Sunrise County are two comparable counties, with

Question

Mountain County and Sunrise County are two comparable counties, with similar numbers of registered voters. Both are in the same region of the state. In both counties, about 60% of the registered voters are registered Republicans, and almost all others are registered Democrats. In 2005, Republican candidate Alf Landon ran for supervisor of Mountain County, and Republican candidate Thomas Dewey ran for supervisor of Sunrise County. Both took similar stands on issues, and both ran against conservative Democratic candidates in the general county-wide election, and none of these four candidates was an incumbent at the time of this election. The Republican Congressman representing Sunrise County endorsed Mr. Dewey, but the Republican Congressman representing Mountain County refrained from endorsing Mr. Landon. Mr. Dewey won his election, but Mr. Landon lost his election. Clearly, the endorsement positions of the respective Congressmen were the deciding factors in these elections.

In evaluating the argument, it would be most useful to know which of the following?

(A) How these two counties have voted in US Congressional and US Presidential elections over the past decade

(B) What stands Mr. Landon and Mr. Dewey took on issues considered most important by registered Democrat voters

(C) How well Congressmen, involved primarily in national politics, are informed of the details of local politics within a single county.

(D) How typical it has been throughout the state, in the past decade, for a Congressman to endorse a county supervisor candidate running in his Congressional district.

(E) How many voters in each of these two counties were aware of their respective Congressman's endorsement positions.

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dhart · Answer

(A) How these two counties have voted in US Congressional and US Presidential elections over the past decade
 US Congressional and US Presidential elections are different set of elections with different agendas than the county elections . Leave

(B) What stands Mr. Landon and Mr. Dewey took on issues considered most important by registered Democrat voters
Well that may be a concern nut they half 60% majority of Republican voters already and still the outcome. looks incorrect

(C) How well Congressmen, involved primarily in national politics, are informed of the details of local politics within a single county.
 Congressmen level of local politics knowledge is not req to endorse a qualified Republican candidate

(D) How typical it has been throughout the state, in the past decade, for a Congressman to endorse a county supervisor candidate running in his Congressional district.
It may be common throughout the state , but we are concerned more about these two counties. Does'nt support much

(E) How many voters in each of these two counties were aware of their respective Congressman's endorsement positions

The argument conlcudes "clearly the endorsement had affected the outcome or something "' so no. of voters awareness about the endorsement could be useful in evaluation of the above argument . Looks good

Vivek1707 · Answer

A. Past voting patterns in national elections don't tell us whether the congressional endorsements mattered in these local elections.
B. The candidates are already described as having similar positions. Small differences in appeal to Democrats aren't the key issue here.
C. The congressmen don't need to be well informed for their endorsements to influence voters.
D. Whether endorsements are common isn't what matters. Even a rare endorsement could have a big impact—or none at all.
E. This gets right to the heart of the argument. If most voters didn't even know about the endorsements, they couldn't have influenced the election. If they did know, the argument becomes much stronger.  Correct

dhart · Answer

thanks for posts, the reasoning was helpful

counterclash1 · Answer

Correct Answer : E

(A) Incorrect (Irrelevant Context): The passage already establishes that both counties are highly comparable in terms of current voter registration (~60% Republican). Knowing how they voted in past national elections over the last decade does not help determine whether the congressional endorsement was the specific cause of this local election outcome.

(B) Incorrect (Already Controlled in Premise): The passage explicitly states that both candidates "took similar stands on issues." Since their stances were already similar, digging into their specific positions on Democratic issues fails to explain why one candidate won and the other lost.

(C) Incorrect (Wrong Focus): Whether the Congressmen themselves are well-informed about local details does not dictate whether their endorsements influenced voter behavior. An endorsement from an uninformed politician could still sway voters, while an endorsement from a deeply informed politician could be ignored.

(D) Incorrect (Out of Scope): Statewide historical trends over the past decade regarding how often Congressmen endorse local candidates do not help evaluate whether the endorsements were the deciding factor in these two specific 2005 county races.

(E) Correct (Evaluate the Causal Mechanism):  For an endorsement position to be the "deciding factor" in an election, voters must actually be aware of it. If very few voters in Sunrise County even knew that their Congressman endorsed Mr. Dewey, the endorsement could not have been the cause of his victory. Conversely, if a large majority of voters were aware of the endorsement positions, it significantly strengthens the causal connection.

Bunuel · Answer

Magoosh Official Explanation:

The counties are similar, the candidates are similar, and the elections seemed quite similar up until the difference of endorsements. Mr. Dewey was endorsed, and Mr. Landon was not. Dewey won, and Landon lost. The argument attributes the difference in election outcome to the difference in endorsements, and we want to evaluate this argument.

(E) is the credited answer. This is crucial: if voters were not aware of the endorsements, then those endorsement could not influence how they voted.

(A) is not necessarily relevant. Presumably both counties voted Republican in most elections, since both are heavily Republican. It's unclear how that would explain anything about the different results in these two elections.

(B) is also not directly relevant. Both counties have a sizeable majority of Republicans. If all voters had simply voted along party lines, both Dewey and Landon would have won. Since a Republican candidate lost, this must mean that many Republicans voted against him. Presumably neither one of these candidates received substantial support from the Democrats in his county.

(C) is entirely irrelevant. National–level politicians often endorse local candidates without having a clue about the local situation. The national-level politician has name-recognition and prestige: these make such an endorsement powerful, regardless of how well informed the national-level politician is about the local political scene.

(D) is vaguely relevant --- if endorsement from Congressmen always happened in both counties, or never happened in either county, then one of these two elections would constitute an exception to the general rule, and that could be notable. But, if endorsements happened irregularly, with no general rule, then it would be considerably harder to argue that this unpredictable pattern was decisively relevant to this argument. Because we don't know what the past pattern of endorsement was, we don't know how relevant this piece of information would be.

BTW, cool historical facts, not at all relevant to the GMAT: Both Alf Landon and Thomas Dewey were unsuccessful Republican candidates for US President. Landon lost to FDR in 1936. Dewey lost to FDR in 1944 and to Truman in 1948 --- his name was featured prominently in one of the famous "bloopers" in US presidential election history.

officiisnobis · Answer

For the endorsement to be the deciding factor a lot of people should be aware about it. Answer - E

Mountain County and Sunrise County are two comparable counties, with

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Mountain County and Sunrise County are two comparable counties, with

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