AP Gov Ch 9

VI. Money and Campaigning B. Regulations on Independent Political Expenditures (Chapter 9)

1.

I. How Americans Vote: Explaining Citizens' Decisions

1. A common explanation of how Americans vote is that they vote for the candidate whose policy views they prefer (this explanation is favored by journalists and politicians).

II. The Nomination Game (Chapter 9)

1. According to former Speaker of the House, Thomas Foley said he knows a lot of people that would be amazing presidents but do not become on because of the tortures presidential candidates go through. Running for president is an around the clock endurance test for over a year, usually consisting of sleep deprivation, countless plane rides, junk food on the run, little time for exercise, and copious amounts of stress. 2. In many advanced industrialized countries, campaigns only last for two months. However, in America, candidates have to announce their candidacy a year before election time.

III. Understanding Campaigns and Voting Behavior (Chapter 9) A. Are Nominations and Campaigns Too Democratic?

1. American elections are more open to the people then most other democratic nations. In America, the people play a crucial role at every stage. A negative comes from the elections being too open to the people, which is that they take up a lot of a candidate's time and extends for a long period of time. 2, The long lasting and time consuming campaigns deters many potentially good presidents.

VI. Money and Campaigning (Chapter 9)

1. Campaigns for office in America are expensive, and they are getting more expensive due to the need for more high tech. 2. Candidates need money to build a campaign organization and get their message out. 3. There is concern that the wealthy campaign contributors are buying special influence over public policy decisions. 4. Two basic ways to contribute money to a political campaign: campaign contributions and independent expenditures

V. The Impact of Campaigns

1. Campaigns have three effects on voters: reinforcement, activation, and conversion. Campaigns can reinforce voters' preferences for candidates; they can activate voters getting them to contribute money or ring doorbells as opposed to merely voting; and they can convert, changing voters' minds. 2. Campaigns may not be as effective as believed because five decades/50 years of research on political campaigns shows that campaigns mostly reinforce and activate, and only rarely do they convert. 3. Several factors tend to weaken campaigns' impact on voters: Most people pay relatively little attention to campaigns in the first place. People have a remarkable capacity for selective perception, the phenomenon where people pay most attention to things they already agree with and interpret events according to their own predispositions. Long term factors, such as party identification, influence voting behavior regardless of what happens in the campaign. Incumbents start with a substantial advantage in terms of name recognition and a track record. This does not mean that campaigns are useless because the small percent of voters they do sway could mean the difference between winning and losing. The easiest people to sway are those who disagree with their preferred candidate on at least one issues, ex: pro choice Republicans.

II. The Nomination Game Evaluating the Primary and Caucus System (Chapter 9)

1. Criticisms of the primary and caucus system: Disproportionate attention goes to the early caucuses and primaries. As a result, Iowa and New Hampshire play a key role in building momentum, generating money, and media attention Money plays too big a role in the caucuses and primaries. Participation in primaries and caucuses is low and unrepresentative. Only about 25 percent (%) of adult citizens cast ballots in presidential primaries, and participation in caucuses is even lower with 5 percent (%) (20 in Iowa though due to media attention)due to the larger amount of time and effort required. Lastly, voters in primaries and caucuses are not representative of the voters because they tend to be older and more affluent than the average voter. The system gives too much power to the media. The press is able to decide who has momentum at any given moment, and readily labels candidates as winners or losers.

VI. Whether to Vote: A Citizen's First Choice B. Registering to Vote (Chapter 9)

1. Critics of voter id say it is unfair to students, racial minorities, and poor people who are less likely to have a government sponsored photo ID.

VI. Whether to Vote: A Citizen's First Choice (Chapter 9) C. Who Votes? 7 important

1. Education: People with higher than average educational levels have a higher rate of voting than people with less education. Highly educated people are capable of discerning the major differences between the candidates. 2. Age: Young adults are less likely to follow politics regularly and hence often lack sufficient motivation to vote. 3. Race and ethnicity: Minorities are usually underrepresented among voters relative to their share of citizenry. 4. Gender: Women participate more than men 5.Marital Status: Married people are more likely to vote. Pattern is true among all age categories. Married people are more tied to the community. 6. Government employment: Having something at stake (their jobs and the future of the programs they work on) and being in a position to know more about government impels government workers to high levels of participation. 7. Politicians listen far more carefully to groups with high turnout rates as they know their fate may be in their hand.

III. Understanding Campaigns and Voting Behavior (Chapter 9)

1. Elections are important because they allow for leaders to be replaced without being overthrown, giving leaders legitimacy since elections are a fair and free method of selecting political leaders.

II. The Nomination Game The Caucuses and Primaries (Chapter 9)

1. From January through June of the election year, the individual state parties busily choose their delegates to the national convention either using caucuses or primaries. 2. State laws determine how delegates are allocated, but they operate within the general guidelines set by the parties. The Democrats require all states to use some form of proportional representation in which a candidate who gets 15 percent or more of a state's vote is awarded a roughly proportional share of the delegates (around 15%) (3).Republicans employ three basic forms of allocating delegates: some states, like Florida, allocate all Republican delegates to whomever wins the most votes. Second, some states, like California, award delegates according to who wins each congressional district. Lastly, some state use proportional representation. 4. To get momentum (mo) candidates have to beat people they were not expected to beat, collect margins above predictions, and never lose to people they were expected to defeat.

III. The Campaign Game B. Organizing the Campaign (Chapter 9)

1. In every campaign, there is too much to do and too little time to do it. 2. Every candidate must prepare for a seemingly endless string of speeches, media interviews, fund raising, events, etc.

VI. Money and Campaigning A. Regulations on Campaign Contributions (Chapter 9)

1. In the early 1970s, as the costs of campaigning skyrocketed and the Watergate scandal exposed large illegal campaign contributions, momentum developed for campaign finance reform. Resulting in the passing of the Federal Election Campaign Act. 2. Money for public financing of presidential campaigns is collected from taxpayers via a $3 voluntary check off box on federal income tax returns. But only about 7 percent of taxpayers check that box. But that isn't a big concern to many candidates because in order to accept taxpayer fund, candidates have to agree to restrictions on overall spending. These restrictions dramatically reduce the amount of money a candidate can spend.

VI. Whether to Vote: A Citizen's First Choice A. Deciding Whether to Vote (Chapter 9)

1. Not only does your vote probably not make much difference to the outcome, but voting is somewhat costly. You have to spend your valuable time becoming informed, making up your mind, and getting to the polls. If you calculate your time and energy needed to vote, you might rationally decide that the costs of voting outweigh the benefits. The most frequent reason for nonvoting given by those who were registered but didn't vote has been they could not take time off from work or school that day. As a result, many scholars propose moving Election Day to Saturday or make it a holiday, similar to many other countries.

III. The Campaign Game

1. Once nominated, candidates concentrate on campaigning for the general election. 2. In political campaigns, candidates allocate their scarce resources of time, money, and energy to achieve their political objectives.

VI. Whether to Vote: A Citizen's First Choice

1. Over two centuries of American electoral history, federal laws have greatly expanded suffrage.

II. The Nomination Game The Convention Send Off (Chapter 9)

1. Party conventions today are carefully scripted to present the party in its best light. 2. George W. Bush said "The convention system provides a system of rewards for hardworking, grass roots people who end up being delegates." 3. The first highlight of most conventions is the keynote speech where the party's basic principles are outlined and the nominee to be is touted. Then the party platform is addressed. Next is the formal nomination of a candidate for president. One of the candidate's eminent (famous/well known/ respected) supporters gives a speech extolling (praise enthusiastically) the candidate's virtues. Then, the roll of states is called (taking attendance), and the chair of each state's delegation announces their votes. Once a presidential candidate is chosen, the convention also has to formally choose a nominee for vice president, thought custom dictates that delegates simply vote for whomever the presidential nominee recommends. The grand finale is the presidential candidate's acceptance speech where they talk about their campaign strategy.

I. How Americans Vote: Explaining Citizens' Decisions A. Party Identification (Chapter 9)

1. Party identifications are crucial for many voters because they provide a regular perspective through which voters can view the political world. 2. Party identification simplifies the political world for many voters and provides a reliable cue as to who is on their side. 3. Niemi Weisburg says "people choose to identify with a party in which they generally agree with." As a result, they usually don't concern themselves with every issue. Rather, they generally rely on their party identification to guide them. Ex: some voters in Texas might not know about the issues in the race for state comptroller, but if they know which party they prefer, then voting based on which side the party is on would probably lead to the same decision that they would reach if they were to study the issues. 4. In the 1950s, scholars singled out party affiliation as the best single predictor of a voter's decision. However, following the mergence of television and candidate centered politics, the parties' hold on voters decrease substantially during the 1060s and 1970s. (5).Today, many voters agree with the statement "I choose the best person for office regardless of party." Many voters no longer vote based on party because modern technology makes it easier for them to evaluate candidates and make their own decisions about the candidates. These voters are called floating voters because their support is up for grabs in each election. Young people are particularly likely to be floating voters and open to the possibility of voting for candidates who are neither Democrats or Republicans.

I. How Americans Vote: Explaining Citizens' Decisions (Chapter 9) B. Candidate Evaluation: How Americans see the Canddiates

1. Shawn Rosenberg and Patric McCaffery showed that it is possible to manipulate a candidate's appearance in a way that affects voters' choices. 2. The three most important dimensions of candidate image are integrity, reliability (dependable and decisive), and competence (intelligence) 3. In 2000, one of the key factors that helped George W. Bush was that he was rated more positively on integrity than was Al Gore, earning better ratings for his perceived honesty and integrity. 4. College Educated voters are the most likely to view the candidates in terms of their personal attributes and to make important issue oriented inferences from these attributes. Ex: A candidate who is unreliable may not be the right person to be the commander in chief of the armed forces.

II. The Last Battle: The Electoral College (Chapter 9)

1. Small states are overrepresented because they all get two electors for their senators regardless of population.

I. Politics in Action: How Running for Office can be More Demanding than Governing Chapter 9

1. Some scholars believe it is important for presidential candidates to go through long and difficult trial by fire. Others however worry that the system makes it difficult for politicians with other responsibilities (incumbent governors and senior senators) to take a run at the White House. 2. Anthony King says that American politicians often do too little because they do not want to risk doing something unpopular even though it could be beneficial because they worry about the next election (they don't want to risk fundamental change). 3. Two types of campaign in American politics: 1. campaign for party nomination (nomination campaign). 2. Campaigns between the nominees of each party (election campaign).

VI. Money and Campaigning C. Are Campaigns Too Expensive? (Chapter 9)

1. The Center for Responsive Politics estimated in 2008 that the contests for the presidency and Congress cost over $5 billion. This may seem like a lot, but it really only costs a couple of dollars per American citizen. 2. Bradley Smith, who served as a commissioner on the FEC writes that the proportion of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP) spent on political activity is a mere 0.05 percent. 3. What bothers politicians most about the rising cost of high tech campaigning is that fund raising takes up so much of their time. Many American officeholders feel that the need for continuous fund raising distracts them from their jobs as legislators. 4. Public financing is one of the popular solutions to combat the costs of campaigns. However, Congress will most likely not consent to equal financing for the people who will challenge them for their seats.

II. The Nomination Game A. Competing for Delegates (Chapter 9)

1. The goal of the nomination game is to win the support of a majority of delegates at the national party convention.

VI. Money and Campaigning D. Does Money Buy Victory? (Chapter 9)

1. The most basic complaint about money and politics is that there may be a direct link between dollars spent and votes received. 2. Gary Jacobson's research shows that the more congressional incumbents spend, the worse they do. This is because incumbents who face a tough opponent must raise more money to meet the challenge.

III. The Campaign Game A. The High- Tech Media Campaign (Chapter 9)

1. Today, television and media is the most prevalent method used by candidates to reach voters. 2. The Internet now also plays a major role in political campaigns. It is the common channel/source through which young people get information about campaigns. As a result, presidential candidates generally establish a website with detailed issues about their issues stands and background, videos of their key speeches, a schedule of upcoming events, and a form enabling people to donate to the campaign online. 3. More people are making political donation now then every before because the internet makes it easy to do so. 4. The most important goal of any campaign is simply to get media attention. Media coverage is determined by two factors: (1). How can candidates use their advertising budget and (2). the "free attention they get as news makers. The first is relatively easy to control. The second is more difficult but not impossible. Almost every logistical decision in a campaign (where to eat breakfast, whom to include on stage, when to announce a major policy proposal, etc.) is calculated according to its intended media impact. The major item in a campaign budget is television adversing, with at least half the budget for a presidential or U.S. Senate campaign being used on campaign commercials. 5. Critics of political ads say that the ads usually emphasize style over substance and image over information similar to how products such as cereal are marketed. However, political ads are not like product ads because political ads are designed to prompt people's thinking, product ads are designed to create awareness of an item for sale. Product ads usually avoid conflict and take a soft sell approach, political ads tend to heighten conflict and employ a hard sell approach. These differences between product and political ads help explain why political scientists have found that campaign advertising is an important source of information about policy issues. 6. Candidates have little control over new coverage. Most campaigns have press aides who feed "canned" news releases to reporters. However, the media largely determined themself what is happening in a campaign and what they want to cover. Campaign coverage interplays between hard news, what candidates say and do, and the human interest angle. It depends on which one journalists think would sell newspapers or interest television viewers. 7. News organizations believe that policy issues are of less interest to voters than the campaign itself. As a result, news coverage is disproportionately devoted to campaign strategies, speculations on what will happen next, poll results, and other aspects of the campaign game.

Motor Voter Act

A 1993 act that requires states to permit people to register to vote when they apply for a driver's license. Sadly, this act did not affect turnout very much. This is most likely due to many states requiring voters to prove they are who they say they are by providing identification (driver's license, passport) when they sign in to vote.

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission

A 2010 landmark Supreme Court case that ruled that restricting groups from using funds in the last 60 days of federal campaigns was unconstitutional because it restricted free speech. As a result, corporations and unions could spend as much as they want to promote their political views as long as they do so without coordinating their message with any candidate's campaign. Many critics of the case's decision say that the Supreme Court has opened up the floodgates to special interest money (especially that of corporations) to corrupt the electoral process. However, the majority of Supreme Court justices (the one who changed the law) reasons that in 10,000 ;ages of the record reviewing the McCain Feingold law there were not "any direct examples of votes being exchanged for independent expenditures." As a result, they concluded that "independent expenditures do not lead to or create the appearance of quid pro quo corruption. They argued that there is only scant evidence that independent expenditures even ingratiate. Consequently, the Court ruled that such expenditures were protected under the Constitution as free speech.

Federal Election Campaign Act

A law passed in 1974 for reforming campaign finances. The act created the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Required that all candidates for federal office must disclose: (1) who has contributed money to their campaign; (2) how the campaign funds have been spent. Also created limits on campaign contributions. Congress limited individual contributions to presidential and congressional candidates to $1,000 per election after finding out wealthy individuals contributed $1 million to the 1972 Nixon campaign.

Direct mail

A method of raising money for a political cause or candidate, in which information and requests for money are sent to people whose names appear on lists of those who have supported similar views or candidates in the past.

Party platform

A political party's statement of its goals and policies for the next four years. The platform is drafted prior to the party convention by a committee whose members are chosen in rough proportion to each candidate's strength. It is the best formal statement of a party's beliefs. Anytime 20 percent of the delegates to the platform committee disagree with the majority, they can bring an alternative minority plank to the convention floor for debate. Before, contests over platform were key tests of a candidate's strength before the nomination. However, today party leaders fear that there might be negative publicity due to disagreement on issues. As a result, most compromises are done behind the scenes.

Federal Election Commission

A six-member bipartisan agency created by the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1974 in order to administer and enforce limits on campaign contributions, and have a place where campaign finance reports could be stored. Three spots on the FEC are reserved for Democrats and three for Republicans. The rules of the commission require four votes for any action, and as a result its critics say, the FEC is all too often locked in partisan stalemate. Nevertheless, it has successfully fulfilled its mission to open up the detail of the campaign finance for everyone to see. Candidates and parties must file regular detailed contribution and expenditure reports (funds spent) with the commission, which in turn posts them at www.fec.gov. www.opensecrets.org allows you to look up a candidates most recent quarterly statement, If you want to know how much money a particular candidate for federal office has recently raised for their campaign. www.fundrace.org allows you to see which of your neighbors has donated to federal campaigns.

voter registration

A system adopted by the states that require voters to register prior to voting. Some states require voters to register as much as 30 days in advance, whereas others permit Election Day registration. This rule is one of the causes why America's voter turnout rate is so low. In sparsely populated North Dakota, there is no registration at all, and in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, New Hampshire, and Maine voters can register on Election Day. Advocators for user friendly procedure point out these states all ranked near the top in voter turnout in 2020

Electoral College

A unique American institution created by the Constitution, providing for the selection of the president by electors chosen by the state parties. Although the Electoral College vote usually reflects a popular majority, less populated states are overrepresented and the winner take all rule concentrates campaigns on close states. it is the Electoral College not the popular vote that actually determines who becomes president of the U.S. Many political scientists and voters oppose the Electoral College. The Founders wanted the president to be selected by the nation's elite not directly by the people. As a result, they created the Electoral College. A boy of electors who are charged solely with the task of voting for the president and vice president. However, political parties since 1828 has made the vote of members of the Electoral College responsive to popular majorities, with most electors voting for the candidate who won their state's popular vote.

McCain Feingold Act (2002)

Banned soft money, and limits on contributions to political partiers were set a $25,000 (adjusted for inflation). Increased amount of individual contributions and limited issue ads. In 2002, the McCain Reingold Act increased the limit the Federal Election Campaign Act set, to $2,000 and the amount would be adjusted for inflation

Speechnow.org v. FEC

D.C. Court of Appeals ruled that donations to a PAC that makes only independent expenditures could not be limited. Whereas a regular PAC can accept donations of no more than $5,000 a year from each individual and can donate no more than $5,000 per election to a candidate. Made it possible for a PAC that just expresses its views to collect and spend heretofore unheard of amounts. The decision here was influenced by the reasonings of the Supreme Court majority in the case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.

independent expenditures

Donations that are made in order to express political views which may aid a candidate's campaign, but cannot coordinate with the campaign.

501(c) groups

Groups that are exempted from reporting their contributions and can receive unlimited contributions. Section 501c of the tax code specifies that such groups cannot spend more than half their funds on political activities. This is the only restriction these groups currently have. These groups allows for unlimited political donations that could remain anonymous because they are regulated by the IRS rather than the FEC, and donations do not have to be reported unless a donor gives money specifically for a political ad. As a result, corporations and unions can give big sums of money to 501(c) groups without having any public disclosure of these donations. Many in Congress want to require donations of $10,000 or more to be disclosed.

Political Action Committee (PAC)

Groups that raise money from individuals and then distribute it in the form of contributions to candidates that the group supports. PACs must register with the FEC and report their donations and contributions to it. Individual contributions to a PAC are limited to $5,000 per year, and a PAC may give up to $5,000 to a candidate for each election.

Doctrine of Sufficiency

Herbert Alexander's idea that a politicians should spend enough money to get a message across to compete effectively, and outspending one's opponent is not always necessary.

SuperPACs

Independent expenditure-only PACs are known as Super PACs because they may accept donations of any size and can endorse candidates. Their contributions and expenditures must be periodically reported to the FEC. Critics argue that the lines between a candidate's campaign and their Super PAC were not quite so independent because top aides to both Obama and Romney appeared at Super PAC fundraising events.

527 groups

Independent political groups that are not subject to contribution restrictions because they do not directly seek the election of particular candidates. Named after section 527 of the federal tax code, which specifies that contributions to such groups must be reported to the IRS and disclosed with the FEC. Wealthy people use these groups to donate large amounts of money. In a controversial 2004 ruling, the FEC declined to subject 527 groups to contribution restrictions as long as their political messages did not make explicit endorsements of candidates by using phrases like "Vote for" and "Vote against" Independent expenditures by 527 groups were partially restricted for about eight years by the McCain Feingold Act. This is because a major provision of the law prohibited corporations and unions from using their general treasury funds to pay for electioneering communications in the last 60 days of the federal campaigns. This changed in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.

soft money

Political contributions earmarked (designated for a particular purpose) for party-building expenses at the grassroots level or for generic party advertising. For a time, such contributions were unlimited, until they were banned by the McCain-Feingold Act. Due to this loophole, national parties received nearly half a billion dollars in 2000. Many of the contributions were in the hundred's of thousands. AT&T and the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) gave over $3 million in soft money. The Democratic Party raised $32 million in soft money donations.

McConnell v. Federal Election Commission (2003)

Supreme Court ruled in favor of the ban on soft money imposed by the McCain Feingold Act. Supreme Court stated that the restriction was justified by the government's legitimate interest in preventing "both the actual corruption threatened by large financial contributions and the appearance of corruption" that might result from those contributions.

Buckley v. Valeo (1976) (Chapter 9)

The Supreme Court struck down the portion of the Federal Election Reform Act that limited the amount of money an individual could contribute to his or her own campaign. The Court reasoned that while big campaign contributions could corrupt politicians and hence needed to be limited, one could hardly corrupt oneself by donating to one's campaign. This allowed Ross Perot to spend over $60 million of his own Also, Mitt Romney was able to spend $44 million of his own money during his 2008 campaign. The Court ruled that contributing to one's own campaign is a form of protected free speech: "The candidate, no less than any other person, has a 1st Amendment right to engage in the discussion of public issues and vigorously and tirelessly to advocate for his own election."

Why it Matters to You: Money and Elections

The amount of money raised is one concrete indicator of support before the first voters are cast, and is often used by the media to judge who the leading candidates are. In addition, money provides a campaign with the ability to hire sufficient staff and advertising time to get its message out.

political efficacy

The belief that one's political participation really matters, that one's vote can actually make a difference. People who vote generally have a high sense of political efficacy

Mandate theory of elections

The idea that the election winner has a mandate from the people to carry out the promised policies. Politicians like this idea because it lets them justify their actions, claiming the public supports their policies. Political scientists think very of the mandate theory of elections. This is because political scientists say there are three major elements that influence a voter's decisions: (1). Voter's party identification, (2).voter's education of the candidates (3). the match between voters' policy positions and those of the candidates and parties; policy voting. But politicians are eager to proclaim "the people have spoken."

battleground states

The key states that the presidential campaigns focus on because they are most likely to decide the outcome of the Electoral College vote. This is because of the winner take all system so they want to get the states that are close (like 50/50 demo and repub smt like that).

suffrage

The legal right to vote in the United States, gradually extended to virtually all citizens over the age of 18. The two major exceptions are noncitizens and convicted criminals. There is no federal requirement stating that voters must be citizens, and it was quite common in the nineteenth century for immigrants to vote prior to attaining citizenship. However, no state currently permits residents who are not citizens to vote. Virtually all states deny prisoners the right vote, about half extend the ban to people on parole, and 10 states impose a lifetime ban on convicted felons. There has been a significant decrease in voter turnout. 80% in the 1896 election, 59% in 2012

II. The Nomination Game The Invisible Primary (Chapter 9)

The period before any votes are cast in primaries or caucuses and candidates compete to win early support and form positive first impressions with elected officials (governors and members of Congress mainly), top fundraisers, and skilled political aides. This stage of the nomination campaign is often referred to as "the invisible primary" as it mostly occurs behind the scenes of public view. Political scientist Mary Cohen and his coauthors argue that during the invisible primary key elected officials in a party often coalesce (come together to form one mass or whole) around the candidate that they find most acceptable and via their endorsements give a crucial boost to this candidate. During the invisible primary, candidates work carefully to create a positive personal image among the media, the political elite, and the attentive portion of the public. Candidates within the same party generally agree more than they disagree. As a result, personal qualifications, character, and intelligence of the candidates frequently take center stage as factors that clearly differentiate the contenders. When candidates who are new on the national stage get scrutinized for the first time, major blunders can easily sink their campaign.

selective perception

The phenomenon where people pay most attention to things they already agree with and interpret events according to their own predispositions.

Why it Matters to You: Early Delegate Contests

The results from the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary frequently end the campaigns of many candidates after only a handful of national delegates have been selected. These contests are important not because of the number of delegates that are chosen but rather because they are the first indicators of public support. If a candidate does not do well in these first two contests, money and media attention dry up quickly.

National party convention

The supreme power within each of the parties. The convention meets every four years to formally select the party's presidential and vice-presidential candidates and to write the party's platform. Today, national party conventions have delegates from most states. However, in the 1830s up to the 1960s, the vast majority of delegates were the political elites (elected officials and heads of the local party organizations). Each state usually had one or two party "bosses" who ran the show, such as the state's governor or major of the largest city. The "bosses" could control who went to the convention and how the state delegates voted when they got there. Early in the twentieth country (1900s) the presidential primary was promoted by reformers who wanted to take nominations out of the hands of party bosses. The reformers wanted to let the people vote for the candidate of their choice and then bind the delegates to vote for that candidate at the national convention. Primary elections caught on quickly as a method of nominating candidates for Congress and state government positions, but the presidential primary took longer to catch on. 35 states left the choice of convention delegate to the party elites through the 1960s. The Democratic Party's disastrous 1968 convention made people rethink the traditional elite dominated closed procedure for selecting convention delegates.

Front loading Frontloading (3)

The tendency for states to hold primaries early in the calendar in order to capitalize on media attention. Many states have moved their primaries up in the calendar recently. This is most notable in 2008 where two thirds of both Democratic and Republican delegates were chosen within six weeks of the Iowa caucus. (3). Front loading poses two potential problems in the eyes of many commentators. First, there is a concern that with so many delegates being chosen so quickly, there may be a rush to judgement before the public can adequately learn about the candidates. Second, oftentimes states that have held late primaries have proved to be irrelevant give that one candidate had already secured the nomination by the time their primaries were held. Ex: By the time Texas and California voted in 2012, Mitt Romney had already wrapped up the Republican nomination. The razor close race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination in 2008 is the only recent instance in which all 50 states mattered. In an attempt to discourage frontloading in 2012, the Republicans adopted a rule eliminating winner take all primaries for most states voting prior to April 1.

Hydraulic theory of money and politics

Theory that like water, money finds its way around obstacles. It refers specifically to the tendency of those who want to contribute money to influence election outcomes to work around new laws. For example, the ban on soft money led to an increase in the number of 527 groups.

Caucus

Where voters choose delegates who will vote for their preferred presidential nominee. A system for selecting convention delegates used in about a dozen mostly rural states in which voters must attend an open meeting to express their presidential preference. Requires a greater time commitment than a primary election. A a result, the turnout level in caucuses is lower than in primary elections. Caucuses test a presidential candidates' strategic acuity, organizational strength, and intensity of support. Iowa caucuses are the first test of the candidates' vote getting ability, and they usually become a full blown media extravaganza. Well known candidates have seen their campaigns virtually fall apart as a result of poor showings in Iowa. On the other hand, some candidates have received tremendous boosts from unexpected strong showings in Iowa. Obama's victory in Iowas shocked the political world and landed him on the covers of the major weekly magazines, Time and Newsweek. Due to the impact that Iowa's first in the nation caucus can have, candidates spend far more time during the nomination season there than they do in the big states like California, Texas, and Florida.

presidential primariesPart

Where voters choose delegates who will vote for their preferred presidential nominee. Elections in which a state's voters go to the polls to express their preference for a party's nominee for president. Most delegates to the national party conventions of the Democratic and Republican party are chosen this way. The primary season begins during the winter in New Hampshire. Similar to the Iowa caucuses, the New Hampshire primary is important because it shows the people that a candidate can get voters and has the support of the people. The primaries serve as elimination contests, as the media continually monitor the count of delegates won. Candidates who fail to score early wins are labeled as losers and typically drop out of the race. Usually, they have little choice since losing quickly inhibits a candidate's ability to raise the money necessary to win in other states. Just because a candidate does not have momentum (mo) from the Iowa caucus or New Hampshire primary does not mean they will lose. There have been several cases where candidates were able to bounce back due to their political appeal.

civic duty

a belief that one has an obligation to participate in civic and political affairs. The belief that in order to support a democratic government, a citizen should always vote.

Nomination

a party's official endorsement of a candidate for office. Anyone can be up for nomination. However, to be successful one needs money, media attention, and momentum.

campaign contributions

donations that are made directly to a candidate or a party, and they are able to use it any way they see fit. These donations must be reported to the FEC. As of 2012, individuals were allowed to donate up to $2,500 per election to a candidate and up to $30,800 to a political party.

Superdelegates

the only remaining vestige of the old elite dominated system. National party leaders who automatically get a delegate slot based on the office they currently hold (ex: member of Congress).In 2012 these members made up 14 percent of the Democratic delegates and 8 percent of the Republican delegates.If two candidates are locked in a tight contests (such as in hillary vs obama 2008) the superdelegates could prove to be decisive and even overturn the people's vote by making the nominee with the least popular votes the presidential candidate. However, superdelegates often do not do this.

campaign stategy

the way in which each candidate attempts to manipulate each of these elements (money, media attention, and momentum) to achieve the nomination. The master game plan candidates lay out to guide their electoral campaign.

Crawford v. Marion County Election Board

upheld the state of Indiana's requirement for voters to show photo-ID in order to vote

Policy voting

when people base their choices in an election on their own issue preferences, and where the candidates stand on policy issues. Policy voting can only take place when four conditions are met (1). Voters must have a clear sense of their own policy positions. (2). Voters must know where candidates stand on policy issues. (3). Voters must see the differences between the candidates on these issues. (4). Voter must cast a vote for the candidate whose policy positions coincide with their own. A 2008 National Election Study found that on the average issues, 61% of the respondents met the first three informational criteria for policy voting. One regular obstacle to policy voting is that candidates often decide that the best way to handle a controversial issue is to cloud their positions in rhetoric. Ex: in 1968 Nixon and Humphrey were deliberately ambiguous about what they would do to end the Vietnam War. This made it extremely difficult for voters to cast ballots according to how they felt about the war. Today however, it is easier for voters to vote according to policies because candidates are now regularly forced to take clear stands to appeal to their own party's primary voters.

McGovern-Fraser Commission (1,4,5 important)

(1). A commission formed at the 1968 Democratic convention in response to demands for reform by minority groups and others who sought better representation. Famously concluded that meaningful participation of Democratic voters in the choice of their presidential nominee was often difficult or costly, sometimes completely illusory, and sometimes impossible. In order to correct this situation they wrote new rules to make the Democratic Party convention more representative and open to input from the public. Under these new rules, party leaders could no longer handpick the convention delegates in secret. All delegation selection procedures were required to be open, so party leaders had the same amount of clout as everyone else. States were told that delegates had to be selected in a way so that everyone could participate, either a state run primary or an open meeting at the local level. Many states decided that the easiest way to comply with the new Democratic delegate selection procedure was to hold a primary to select convention delegates. Because state laws instituting primaries typically apply to both parties' selection of delegates, the Republican Party's nomination process was similarly transformed. (4). The opening of the presidential nominations to broad based public participation made it so that experienced politicians/delegates who knew the candidates were mostly replaced by delegates who obtained their seats due to their preferred candidates ability to pull in votes. (5). Riots at the 1968 Democratic national convention led to the establishment of more open procedures for delegate selection. These reforms have made recent party conventions more representative.