Political Campaigns & Candidates

The Nomination Game• Nomination: Party’s official

endorsement of a candidate.• Success in nominations:

– Requires money, media attention, momentum.

• Important to electoral process:– Sets real limits to the choices that

voters can make.

Deciding to Run• Campaigns are more strenuous than ever.• Many strong candidates decide not to run.

– Unlimited campaign time line.– Candidate for presidency needs to be

announced at least 1 yr. before election.– Risk-taker: self confidence to put everything on

the line.• Strong electoral base.• Key political office before seeking presidency.

Competing for Delegates

• Goal of nomination game: – win the majority of delegates support at

national party convention.• Caucuses & Primaries

– From February-June individual state parties choose their delegates to national convention through caucuses & primaries.

– Historically, all states selected delegates for national convention in a caucus.

Caucuses• Caucus: a private meeting of political

party members in order to seek agreement on a common course of action, and select delegates for a state or national nominating convention.– Open to all voters who are registered with

the party.– Replaced by convention because a caucus

limits the participation of party members. • Today, only a few states hold caucuses.

– Iowa

Caucus Organization• Local Precinct

– Local government subdivision for organizing voting process

– Less that 1000 voters– Choose delegates

• County Caucuses• Congressional-District

– Chooses who goes to state convention

• State Convention– Chooses who goes to national party convention.

Primaries• Today, most delegates to the national

convention are chosen in primaries.• Primaries:

– Voters in a state go to the polls and vote for a candidate or for delegates pledged to a candidate.

• Open primaries: open to anyone, regardless of political party.

• Closed primaries: must belong to political party, and vote only in that party’s ballot.

Presidential Primaries• Season begins in winter in New

Hampshire.– “Super Tuesday”: started in 1988 in the

south.• Southern states moved all of their primaries

to the same day in early March.– To counter-act the influence in choice of

democratic nominees.

• Many states participate to downplay the earlier Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary.

Presidential Primaries

• Serve as elimination contests:– Candidates who lose in early primaries, lose the

ability to raise money necessary to win in other states.

– Momentum is no guarantee of victory!

• Primary procedures vary by state:– Due to federalism, state laws determine when

primaries are held.• Detailed provisions of election laws maintain honest and

free elections.• Integrity of election process protected by detailed process

of both federal and state election laws.

– Each party sets up how delegates are allocated.

Criticisms of primary & caucus system

• Disproportionate amount of attention goes to the early caucuses and primaries.– Media-dominated campaigns are distorted– Smith v. Allwright: primaries are an integral part of the election

process.

• Time and Effort– It’s a full time job! Difficult for politicians to take time out of their

duties to run. – Greater reliance on mass media.

• Money plays too big a role.• Exaggerates regional factors.• System gives too much power to media.• Participation is low and not representative of voting

population.– 20% participate in primaries.

Proposals for National Primaries

Proposals:Bring directness & simplicity to

both voters & candidates.

Reduce length & cost of campaigns.

Concentration of media coverage would increase political interest

& public understanding.

Independent voting & ticket splitting.

Increased reliance on public opinion polls.

CriticismsRequire run-ff elections between

top two finishers to avoid having candidate win only by

plurality.

Need for “big” money.

Need for intense media attention works against the less known

candidates.

The Convention Send Off

• The drama of national conventions has expired.– Winner is usually a foregone conclusion.– Not in a party’s best interest (1964, 1966).

• Carefully scripted to present party in its best light.

• Significant rallying point for the parties.• Important in developing the party’s policy

positions & in promoting political representation.

Organization of Conventions• Day One:

– Keynote speech designed to stimulate interest and build party morale.

• Day Two:– Centers on party platform

• a list of the principles which a political party supports in order to appeal to the general public for the purpose of having said party's candidates voted into office.

• This often takes the form of a list of support for, or opposition to, controversial topics.

• Day Three:– Lengthy nominating and secondary speeches.– Presidential candidate is chosen in form of roll-call vote of the states.

• Day Four:– Vice-presidential candidate chosen by roll-call vote.– Delegates usually select whomever the presidential nominee

recommends.

The Campaign Game• Campaigning today is heavily dependent on

technology.– Television most prevalent way of reaching voters.– Most of the money spent on presidential campaigns

is spent on the media.• Allows candidates to make themselves known to the public.• Presidential campaigns organized by candidates own

personal political organization, not parties.

– Computer technology targets mailings to prospective supporters.

• Direct mail: sending information & request for money from those who have supported similar candidates in past.

• Accumulation of mailing lists enables candidate to hand pick receivers.

The Campaign Game• Candidates concentrate on

campaigning for the general election.

• Three ingredients needed to project the right image to voters:– Organization– Money– Media attention

The Campaign Game

• To effectively organize campaigns, candidates must successfully…– Line up a campaign manager– Get a fund-raiser– Get a campaign counsel– Hire media and campaign consultants– Assemble a campaign staff– Plan the logistics– Get a research staff and policy advisors– Hire a pollster– Get a good press secretary

Campaign Finance

• Campaigns are expensive.• Campaigns need money to build

campaign organization.• Perception that money buys votes

& influence.• People who cannot get money are

denied opportunity to get elected.

Sources of Campaign Financing

• There are two sources:– Private Contributions– Public Treasury

• Campaign finance laws have had significant impact on both.

Campaign Finance

• Private Givers:– The candidates themselves, individual

citizens, PACs, and temporary campaign organizations.

– PACs:• Major sources of campaign finance• Formed from interest groups.• Can give no more $5000 to any one federal

candidate.• Aim: influence elections & public policy decisions.

Campaign Finance

• Public Subsidies:– Have encouraged more candidates to

compete for public office.– Candidates who accept public

subsidies are subject to limits on their total campaign spending.

Campaign Reform

• Federal Election Campaign Act of 1974– Only interested in presidential elections

• Provisions:– Bipartisan FEC was created to administer campaign

finance laws & enforce compliance.– Provided public financing for presidential primaries.– Established limits for presidential campaign

spending.– Requires that all candidates file periodic financial

disclosure reports (who & how much)– Limited contributions (individual contributions

restricted to $1000).

Campaign Finance Reform

• Constitutionality of Act of challenged.– Buckley v. Valeo:

• Court struck down the portion of the Act that limited the amount that limited the amount individuals could contribute to their own campaigns.

• In 1979: Act amended– made it easier for political parties to raise

money for voter registration drives and campaign material at grass-roots level.

Campaign Finance Reform

• Impact of Act:– Have made campaigns more open &

honest.– Small donors are encouraged.

• Restricts wealthy.

– All contributions & expenditure records are open.

– Encouraged the spread of PACs

Campaign Finance Reform

• Spread of PACs:– Reform created a new way for interest

groups to contribute to campaigns.– Formed when business association or some

other interest group decides to contribute to candidates they believe will be favorable toward their goals

– Proliferated in recent years and play a major role in paying for expensive campaigns.

– Critics believe it has led to a system of open graft. PACs have too much influence.

– PACs give money to candidates who already agree with them.

Impact of Campaigns• Overestimate the impact of

campaigns.• Three major effects on voters:

– Reinforcement• Reinforces voters preferences.

– Activation• Gets voters to contribute money or become

active in campaigns.

– Conversion• Changes a voter’s mind.

Impact of Campaigns• Primarily reinforce and activate.

– Selective perception• Political phenomenon in which voters tend to pay

the most attention to positions they already agree with and interpret events according to their own predispositions.

– Party identification• Still important influence on voting behavior.

– “One” vote mentality• Misconception that a person’s vote doesn’t

count.

Understanding nominations & campaigns

• Impacts on democracy– Allows citizens a voice at almost

every point in election process.– “The permanent campaign”– Burden of campaigning can

discourage good candidates from entering the race.

– The “candidate centered age”

Increasing the Scope of Government

• States are key battlegrounds of presidential campaigns– candidates tailor their appeals to the particular

interests of each major state.

• Candidates end of supporting a variety of local interests– Secures votes from each region of the country.

• The way our political system is set up makes it easier to expand the scope of government than to limit it.– New Deal (FDR)– War on Poverty (LBJ)