Following the success of making a film about politics and culture in Louisiana, Alvarez, Kolker and Stekler expanded their scope to the entire country in Vote for Me: Politics in America (1996), a four hour, two night national special on PBS. Exploring Chicago ethnic politics, the Texas legislature, organizing in old age communities in south Florida, and creating media events in California, the series was dscribed as a "a landslide of an election special" by the Los Angeles Times, "the standout in a season of documentaries" by the Chicago Tribune, "pure Americana, merry and marvelous and authentic" by USA Today, "the best four credit course on real politics you could ever take" by Roll Call, and, by the Atlanta Journal Constitution, as "a masterpiece, unmatched by anything you'll see this political season in the breadth and depth with which it makes you laugh, makes you enraged and -- most remarkable of all -- makes you care about politics." The last hour and a half, film within a film (The Political Education of Maggie Lauterer) follows an inexperienced local TV reporter and singer who runs for congress. The series won an Emmy, Columbia-duPont, and a Peabody, whose committee called the it "a glimpse of our system that ultimately turns the surprising trick of making viewers more appreciative of and less cynical about the political process."