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| the party electorate chooses which candidates will run for office under the party’s label |
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| all voters can make the final choice between the 2 parties’ nominees for each office |
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| The shift to primaries forces the American parties to develop a different set of strategies in... |
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| supporting candidates, contesting elections, and trying to hold elected officials accountable than we would find in nations that do not hold primaries |
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| Although it is the just the first of two steps in electing public officials, the DIRECT PRIMARY |
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| does the major screening of candidates by reducing the choices to two in most races |
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| For the first 110 years of the American republic, candidates for offices were nominated by... |
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| party caucuses and, later, by the party conventions |
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| In the early years, as the parties began to establish local and state organizations, they held ________ __________ __________ to choose candidates for county offices |
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| caucuses came to be seen as an aristocratic elite - __________ ___________ - that ignored public opinion |
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| in 1831, a minor party called the ________________ held a national convention to nominate its presidential candidate |
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| The ______________ ______________ held their own convention in time for the 1832 election |
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| Conventions were composed of... |
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| delegates chosen by state and local party leaders, often at their own lower-level nominating conventions |
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| Delegates were chosen and the conventions managed by the... |
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| _____________ movement led the drive against conventions |
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| Progressives proposed a new way to nominate candidates, |
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| they suggested to let the voters select their party’s candidates |
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| Progressives’ core belief: |
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| the best way to cure a democracy’s ills was to prescribe larger doses of democracy |
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| The first 2 decades of the 20th century was a time when one party or the other dominated the politics of many states, |
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| the most pervasive one-party rule in American history |
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| Because of the existence of primaries, |
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| party leaders in the US have less control over who will receive the party nomination that in most other democracies |
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| Because states have the legal right to design their own nominating systems, |
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| the result is a mixture of primaries and conventions for choosing candidates for state offices |
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| only voters who have formally declared their affiliation with a party can participate in these State’s primaries |
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| in which there must be a permanent record of the voter’s party affiliation before he/she can vote in that party’s primary. In most of these states, voters have to register as a Democrat or a Republican prior to the election. Then they receive the primary ballot of only their own party when they arrive to vote. |
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| voters receive either a consolidated ballot or ballots for every party, and they select the party of their CHOICE in the privacy of the voting booth. They can vote in only one party’s primary in a given election. |
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| The state of Washington adopted the _________ __________ in 1935 |
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| the names of candidates from all parties appear on a single ballot in the primary, so a voter can choose a Democrat for one office and a Republican for another |
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| “top two” system (Washington 2008) |
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| in which the top two vote getters for each office, regardless of party, advance to the general election |
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| “nonpartisan” primary (Louisiana) |
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| All parties are listen on the same ballot, no matter what party they belong to. But if one candidate for an office wins more than 50 % of the votes in the primary, he or she is elected to that office immediately. A runoff between the top two vote getters is held in the general election only if no candidate for the office wins an outright majority in the primary |
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| closed primary reflects the belief that citizens benefit from having clear choices in elections, |
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| which can best be provided by unified, strong parties; therefore, it makes sense for a party’s candidates to be selected by that party’s loyal followers |
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| Most party organizations prefer the... |
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| Voters CROSS OVER in order to... |
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| take part in a more exciting race or to vote for a more appealing candidate in the other party. But in a presidential primary, or when only a few offices are on the ballot, both independents and partisans often cross over. |
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| is a conscious effort to weaken the other party by voting for its least attractive candidates |
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| More moderate candidates for president, and those with a nontraditional appeal or a more independent image, |
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| often campaign especially hard in states with open primaries, where they can benefit from the support of crossover voters |
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| is a party leader’s nightmare that opponents will make mischief by voting in the party’s primary for the least appealing candidate. |
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| In most states, candidates get on the primary ballot by... |
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| filing a petition. State election laws specify how many signatures the petition has to contain. |
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| In some other states, a candidate needs only... |
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| to appear before the clerk of elections and pay a small fee. |
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| In most states’ primaries, a ____________ is enough to get on the ballot |
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| The Progressives designed the direct primary to... |
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| break the party organization’s monopoly control of nominations |
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| Normally, only about ______ as many voters turn out for a primary as for a general election |
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| one who, because of his or her issue stands or background, may not appeal to the broader turnout in the general election. This happens if the smaller group of primary voters is not representative of those who will vote later |
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| Primary voters might be tempted to choose a candidate who is more ____________ than the party’s supporters as a while |
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| A reason why primary voters may choose a weak candidate. In a race in which all the candidates are of the same party, |
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| voters cannot use their party identification to select candidates, and many voters may not have any other relevant information available. |
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| Primaries can create a conflict that may reopen old party wounds or produce new ones. Activists who had campaigned for the losing candidate in a primary may sit out of the general election rather than work for their party’s nominee. |
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| Running in a competitive primary contest might make the winner an... |
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| even stronger candidate in the general election, as it happened in the 2008 Democratic presidential race. |
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| When candidate are chosen in primaries rather than by party leaders, |
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| the party loses a powerful means of holding its candidates and officeholders accountable for their actions. |
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| Drawback of Primaries, 1. |
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| Primaries permit the nomination of candidates hostile to the party organization and leadership, opposed to the party’s platform, or out of step with the public image that party leaders want to project |
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| Drawback of Primaries, 2. |
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| Primaries create the real possibility that the party’s candidates in the general election will be an unbalanced ticket if primary voters select all or most of the candidates from a particular group or region |
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| Drawback of Primaries, 3. |
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| Primaries greatly increase campaign spending. The cost of a contested primary is almost always higher than that of a convention. |
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| Drawback of Primaries, 4. |
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| Primaries extend political campaigns, already longer in the US than in other democracies, to a length that can try many voters’ patience. |
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| If they have a strong organization, Parties may be able to... |
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| convince less desirable candidates to stay out of the race, perhaps by threatening to block a candidate’s access to campaign money$$$. |
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| Formal endorsements can often discourage other candidates from challenging the party’s choice in the primary and... |
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| can keep some interest groups from flooding a race with outside money in support of a nonendorsed candidate. |
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| If the party is not able to prevent a challenge to its preferred candidates, |
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| It may urge party activists to help the favored candidates circulate their nominating petitions or offer party money and expertise to these candidates. It may publish ads announcing the party’s endorsements or print reminder cards that voters can take right into the polling booth. The party organization may help get party voters to the polls |
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| The party organizations that seem best able to control candidate recruitment are generally those that... |
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| endorse and support candidates in the primary itself |
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| Two facts help make primaries more manageable for the parties: |
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| often only one candidate runs for each office in a primary AND the majority of voters do not vote for them |
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| The most important determinant of the competitiveness of a primary is the party’s prospects for victory in the general election; |
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| candidates rarely fight for the right to face almost certain DEFEAT |
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| By weakening party control of nominations through the direct primary, |
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| Progressive reformers may have unintentionally made it harder to defeat incumbents. |
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| Voters are scarce. Turnout tends to be especially low in the... |
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Definition
| minority party’s primary, in primaries held separately from the state’s presidential primary, and in elections in which independents and the other party’s identifiers are not allowed to vote. |
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| Voters are scarce. Turnout tends to be especially low in the... |
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Definition
| minority party’s primary, in primaries held separately from the state’s presidential primary, and in elections in which independents and the other party’s identifiers are not allowed to vote. |
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| Southern primaries in earlier years were the one great exception to the rule that few people vote in primaries... |
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| Because winning the Democratic nomination in a one-party area was tantamount to winning the office itself, competition and turnout in Democratic primaries were relatively high |
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| Many primary votes are strong party identifiers and activists, |
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| which makes them more responsive to party endorsements of certain candidates. People who vote in primaries have higher levels of education and political interest than nonvoters do. |
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| Because primary campaigns tend to get little media coverage, |
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| the candidates are often not well known. |
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| strong party organizations |
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| those able to muster the needed voters, money, activists, and organization... Can have a big influence on the results |
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| The greatest fear of party leaders is that if they support one candidate in a primary and the other candidate wins, |
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| they could lose all influence over the winning officeholder |
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| Primaries can help the weaker party.... |
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| choose a candidate with greater voter appeal |
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| From the risk of divisive primary races to the added campaign funding and voter mobilization that they require, |
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| primaries strain party resources and create headaches for party leaders and activists |
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| The Direct Primary has ______________ power within the parties |
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| redistributed. Because candidates (especially incumbents) can win the party’s nomination even when they defy the party organization, the idea of party “discipline” loses credibility |
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| the party’s candidates and the party in government at the expense of the party organization. |
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| Primaries also contribute to the DECENTRALIZATION of power in the American Parties. |
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| As long as the candidates can appeal successfully to a majority of local primary voters, they are free from the control of state or national party leaders. |
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| The Jacksonians promoted the convention system in order to... |
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| gain control of the party from congressional party leaders. |
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| Progressives used their preference for the direct primary as a weapon with which to .... |
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| wrest control of the party and, ultimately, the government from the party organization. |
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| Those who control the nominations have great influence on the political agenda and, in turn, |
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| over who gets what in the political system! |
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