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Republican Party Delegates

Winner needed to get over half of the total number of delegates; as candidates fall out of race the candidate can pledge the delegates they earned to a remaining candidate

Modern examples of critical realignments

Shift in 1960's and 70's in South from Democrats to Republicans; 1980 - Evangelical Christians leave Democrats and go to Republicans after the failure of the Carter administration

States that have open primaries

Michigan and Texas

Electineering Communication

"any broadcast, cable, or satellite communication which (I) refers to a clearly identified candidate for Federal office; (II) is made within 60 days before a general, special, or runoff election for the office sought by the candidate; or 30 days before a primary or preference election, or a convention or caucus of a political party that has authority to nominate a candidate, for the office sought by the candidate."

How much money in donations are candidates allowed to get

$2,500 per candidate/election from individuals (increases every 2 years) and $5,000 per candidate/election from PACs

Up to how much money can individuals donate a year to political party organizations

$30,000

How much money can National Parties donate per candidate/election

$5,000 (U.S. House elections) or $42,600 (Senate elections)

How do Political Party Organizations obtain their donations

(local, state, and national) hold fundraisers involving golf outings (more local level) to formal dinners (more state and national level); direct mailing, online donations

How was Electoral College revised

12th amendment enforcing elections of President and VPto be separate

26th amendment

18 years or older can vote

How many electoral votes needed to win

270

Regional primaries

5-6 regions of the country, would take turns voting going first

total electoral votes

538 total electoral votes= 50 states+ 3 DC

Super PACs (Independent Expenditure Committee)

A new type of PAC that pays for communications that are not coordinated with parties or candidates; it can advocate for or against a candidate by name; can't give $ to a candidate directly and may not admit coordination with parties or candidates (Ex. American Crossroads)

Blanket Primary

A variant of an open primary where voters choose from a ballot that lists the candidates of all the parties. Voters can choose a democratic candidate for one office and a republican candidate for another office Ex: California

501 (c) 4 groups

After the Citizens United case this type of political organizations started to form because this specific "nonprofit groups" are allowed to be politically involved as long as long as politics is not their "primary purpose"; donations to these groups are unlimited and anonymous; corporations and unions are putting money into these groups because they don't necessarily want their donations and advertising spending made public information (Ex: Crossroads GPS - an arm of the American Crossroads SuperPAC)

super delegates

Are elected officials (governors, mayors, etc.) who get to go to the convention and vote for president independent of what voters in the states want. They are unpledged delegates and make up about 1/6 of all the delegates that attend the convention

pledged delegates

Based on how democrat voters, vote in presidential primaries. Delegates are bound to vote the way the state votes.

When are general elections

Beginning of November on the first Tuesday after the first Monday and is same day for the entire country

How are National Parties allowed to use their donations?

Can use more $ to promote voter registration (state level) and election activities to benefit candidates from the party; can create ads that promote issues supported by party platform but can't create ads that expressly promote a candidate

Citizens United Case on soft money

Citizens United Case now allows companies and unions to spend money on ads that use express advocacy of candidates. Prior to the case soft money could not be used to expressly advocate for a candidate

How does the National Government force states to adapt certain rules about voting?

Constitutional amendments; national laws

Delegate selection for convention

Each party determines # of delegates attending the convention (Democrats have more than Republicans due to rule selection) but it is mainly determined by population of the state and loyalty to party

How are electoral votes awarded per state

Each state gets electors based on # of Congress members (2 senators + # of US House Reps); electoral votes based on population; most states use winner-take-all system to determine which candidate gets electors sent to state capital to cast votes for president

Electoral College System

Election process used for indirectly electing the president in the general elections

Caucus

Meeting of registered party members to determine presidential candidates, have local then regional and finally state meetings; seems outdated; happens in smaller states such as Iowa

When are primaries

In the first half of the year; anywhere between January and June depending on state

Timing of states in presidential primaries

Iowa and New Hampshire are first based on party rules. States that go earlier are penalized by not having delegates attend/ vote at national party convention (ex. Michigan and Florida in 2008)

When has House decided president

Jefferson and Burr (Jefferson won); Adams, Clay, Crawford, and Jackson (Adams won)

Concerns with Electoral College

Larger states with close polls get more attention in the presidential election process; smaller states have more electoral votes in proportion to population; not a direct election; the winner can have less popular votes but more electoral votes and win

States that use proportional division method in electoral college

Maine and Nebraska

Cons of presidential primaries method

Many see this as undemocratic because voters in states that go later (like PA) in the presidential primary season usually have no say in who is a presidential candidate because many candidates drop out of the race by the time they have their primary

Hard Money

Money raised and spent by a candidate's campaign organization; must be raised and spent in accordance with current federal law; can then be used for federal elections (US Congress or President); regulated by the Federal Election Commission

Soft Money

Money raised and spent by political groups (PACS, Parties, 527 groups, etc) other than a candidate's campaign and not donated directly to a candidate

Pros of Closed primaries

More controlled primaries with less influence from non-party members

Federal PACs

Organized for unions or corporations for political activity- federal law prohibits labor unions and corporations from donating money directly to candidates so PACs are formed to be independent of these powerful organizations yet still represent them; Regulated by FEC and federal laws; Each PAC can donate up to $5,000 per candidate per election directly to the candidate's campaign; Companies and unions can now use express advocacy in ads after the Citizens United Case but still are prohibited from donating directly to candidates

groups

PACs; candidate campaign organizations; political parties; 501s; 527s; "friends with (candidate's name)" on ads

Main campaign expenses

Paying for campaign staff and advisors; advertising; travel expense of candidate and staff

Super Tuesday

Primary day with many states conducting primary elections on the same day; many times after this primary candidates not doing well will drop out.

Possible future change for timing of pres. primaries

Regional primaries; state lotteries

Open primaries

Registered party members, independents, and sometimes other party members can vote for candidates; typically voters can only vote for candidates from one party at a time. So voters have to choose which party they want to vote for on the primary election day and can only vote for candidates from that party.

What do states determine

Registration process (mail-in, online, same day as election); types of ballots and process for them (absentee, provisional); location of voting sites; assignment of voters to that site; early voting; voting on more than just one day; hiring of poll workers; types of voting machines and counting/reporting guidelines; rules for ballot access and campaign financing; draw lines for congressional election districts (gerrymandering)

Who runs elections and creates rules for voter registration, primary elections, general elections, and presidential elections

States

Who runs primaries

States; not parties but party rules can be taken into account when running the primaries such as order of states in presidential primaries

501 Groups

Tax-exempt groups that have some other nonpolitical purpose; nonprofit organizations that generally do not have the money, power, or political influence that corporations or unions have and therefore are not as limited by federal campaign finance law; limited by law in political activity (ex: local PTA groups; Salvation Army; American Red Cross)

What happens if there is a tie/ winning candidate doesn't get 270 electoral votes

U.S. House of Rep. votes for president; each state gets one vote

Closed primaries

Voters can only vote for parties they are registered to; Independents can't vote for Republican or Democrat candidates; ex: PA, Ohio, Florida

What are general elections

Voters vote for any candidate, regardless of party, for an elective office. Winners will take over the position they ran for-- usually in January of the next year; voters can write in a candidate's name if it is not on the ballot

How presidential primaries are different than normal primaries

Votes determine how delegates get allotted for nominating convention; some states divide delegates proportionally based on % of votes; winner-take-all system; this year more states did proportional selection of delegates than in the past in Republican primaries

Old Electoral College

Winner became president; second place became VP; had to be revised after party formations because President and VP would be from two separate parties

527 groups

a tax-exempt organization created primarily to influence the nomination, election, appointment or defeat of candidates for public office; not as regulated by the Federal Election Commission or by a state elections commission, and are not subject to the same contribution limits as PACs because they often focus on issue advocacy and voter registration activities rather than express advocacy of candidates (ex. liberal- moveon.org; conservative- Swift Boat Veterans For Truth)

What information do Federal Candidate Campaign Committees have to disclose to the FEC so that it may become public?

all PACs that give them contributions and how much; the names, occupations, employers and addresses of all individuals who give them more than $200 in an election cycle; expenditures to any individual or vendor

Public Communication

broader definition of all election communication including yard signs, mailings, as well as larger audience communication involving ads on TV and radio

Use of Internet/ Cell Phones in Campaigning and Financing

changing funding raising techniques and making it cheaper and easier to raise funds; also changing campaign advertising and campaign communication

Cons of open primaries

cross-over voters; raiding

Why are political parties more limited in raising and spending soft money than before

due to the law BCRA (Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act). Parties can only donate $5,000 per candidate, per election. Before it used to be unlimited

Who do voters vote for in electoral college system

electors who will cast the vote for the president

Civil Rights Act

eliminates literacy tests, federal crime to try to prevent someone from voting in a federal elections

U.S. House/ 1/3 of Senate

every 2 years

Presidential elections

every 4 years

Independent Expenditures

expenditures made independently of a candidate's campaign by interest groups such as 527's or PACS; spending by these groups can't be limited under constitution (freedom of speech issues); if expenditures are made in "coordination" with a candidate's campaign, however, they may be regulated as contributions to a candidate's campaign.

PACs

greatly increased after introduction of campaign finance laws in 1970s; give a lot of money to US Congress members (instead of presidential candidates); like to give money to incumbents more often; PACS will "punish" politicians who vote against the PACS interest

What kind of money do candidate campaign organizations raise

hard money in accordance with FEC and election laws

Run-off primary

if no candidate gets the majority of the vote, there is a run-off between the two with the most votes; more common in the south

Where do donations to candidates come from

individuals and then different types of PACs

Pros of presidential primaries method

less funded; lesser known candidates may be able to campaign more effectively in smaller states like Iowa and New Hampshire. If they do well (place 1-3) their campaign can pick up momentum/ money

Voting Rights Act

limits states from hurting minority voters; paid for federal poll workers to monitor areas where there has been a history of minority suppression.

Direct Mail

method by which interest groups, parties, and campaigns get contributions via the mail which are usually smaller in amounts

Odd numbered years

more local elections such as school board, township supervisors, borough/ city councils

Even numbered years

more state and national elections

24th amendment

no poll taxes

When can political parties use soft money

only for state and local political activities (voter registration, get-out-the-vote drives, bumper stickers); and generic party-building activities (TV ads supporting the Democratic and Republican platforms, but not naming specific candidates)

raiding

organized attempt by voters of one party to influence the primary results of another party

Democrat Party Delegates

pledged delegates; super delegates

Uniqueness of Presidential Elections

presidential preference primaries (delegates, national convention); general election; electoral college system; only nation-wide election; public funding paid by government through taxes (started in 1970s); some presidents choose not to get public funding because it limits how much money they can raise through private donations (ex. Obama and Bush II)

Front Loading

primaries starting earlier; prolongs presidential elections and makes them more expensive

Purpose of primaries

registered voters to choose a candidate from a party to run in the general election (in the fall). Winners appear on ballot of general election

State lotteries

rotating lineup of states so Iowa and New Hampshire are not always first

Cons of Closed Primaries

seen as less democratic; independents and third party members often can't participate

Pros of open primaries

seen as more democratic because people can vote in other party primaries if the primary is close; often allows independents to vote

Leadership PACs (political party PACs)

share/donate money between elected party members to increase likelihood of reelection/election of party members (ex. Republican Congressional Campaign Committee)

Special Elections

sometimes special elections other than general elections occur in November that usually involve replacing a vacancy due to death or early resignation

Who do National Parties promote more often with their donations and why?

state and local candidates due to limitations from the BCRA for federal candidates.

Express Advocacy

states the endorsement (or non-endorsement) of a candidate for office; regulated in campaign commercials. If the ad was made by the candidate's campaign itself it will have a statement similar to " I am Barack Obama and I approve of this message" Otherwise express advocacy ads are probably made by a group outside of the candidate's campaign; recent changes after the Citizens United case have expanded the use of express advocacy for companies and unions

Issue Advocacy

stating the endorsement on a position or view of a topic; not as regulated as express advocacy; used by interest groups to support candidates without doing express advocacy that might be limited by federal election law

Obama v. Clinton Democratic Primary of 2008

super delegates began to support Obama and Clinton resigned from race

Why was Electoral College written in constitution

to protect against "unruly" voters; founding fathers did not trust democratic system

Mid-term Elections

type of general election that happens two years into a presidential term

When are PA's primaries

usually in May; sometimes April only on presidential election years; on presidential election years the dates of parties are often earlier than in non-presidential years

State governors and state legislature positions

varies; PA gov every 4 years

How are donations collected

via direct mailings, web-based donations, cell phone texts, and special fundraising events such as dinners; donations of more than $200 by individuals must be registered with FEC and displayed on public record

critical elections

when there is a major shift in groups of people that register to a political party

cross-over voters

when voters do not vote for their own party

19th amendment

women right to vote