american politics part 1 Flashcards
what is the main process in order to be elected as president?
-usa has fixed term election that occur every 4 years.
-first presidential election was held in 1788, then presidential election has been held every since.
-if president dies there is no election the vice does become president for example in the case of john Kennedy who was assassinated in 1963, Lyndon Johnson replaced him.
what does the law say about the main process to elect a president?
-the fact that the election occur very four year is in the consition.
-federal law does state that the elections should be held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November of every fourth year. in practise it means that an election must occur between 2 and 8 November.
what is the first stage of the presidential election?
first stage is the invisible primary, functions include
-candidate announcements
-increasing name recognition
-fundraising
-intra party tv debates
this occurs during the calendar year before the election.
what is the second stage of the presidential election?
primaries and caucuses functions include
-show popular support for candidates
-choose to delegate to attend national party conventions
this is held and does occur during the January/ February to early June
what is the third stage for a presidential election?
this is a stage where by the candidate does choose is vice presidential candidate.
functions include
-presidential candidate announces choice of running mater
it occurs during some days/ weeks before convention.
what is the fourth stage of a presidential election?
the fourth stage is the national party organisation its functions do include
-confirm presidential and vice presidential candidate
-approve party platform
-acceptance speech delivered by presidential Canidate.
this occurs during the july/ august ( each lasts for 4 days).
what is the fifth stage of a presidential election?
this is the general election campaign stage it functions do include;
-a campaign between the candidates of the various parties
occurs during the September/ October first week of November
what is the sixth stage of a presidential election?
its the election day, its function do include
-registered voters do go to the polls ( although a lot could have participated in early voting)
this occurs Tuesday after the first Monday in November.
what is the seventh stage of a presidential elections?
this is the electoral college voting its functions do include
-electors do vote in their state capitals to choose president and vice president.
this does occur the Monday after the second Wednesday in December.
what are the constitional requirements you need in order to become president in the us?
-one must be a natural born us citizen
-one must be at least 35 years old. youngest ever elected president was john f Kennedy at the age of 43.
-there is also a residency qualification of 14 years.
-in 1951 constiton was amended to limit the president to two terms in office. the first president end to feel this was Dwight eisenhower in 1960 ad then Ronald regaen, bill Clinton, George w bush, and barrack Obama.
what is the invisible primary?
-in the USA the candidates are chosen by ordinary voters,
-the manoeuvring of the elections does take months and years.
-because the events does take years before the official stage the primaries, and there is little to see it is referred to as the invisible primary.
what is said about the invisible primary?
-the invisible primary is said to be critically important for a candidate to gain the name recognition and money and put together the necessary organisation.
-there’s a high correlation between who is leading in the polls at the end of the invisible primary and who wins the nominations.
how is the invisible primary plaid out?
- it is said to be played out by the media. mainly the candidate would hope to be mentioned as a serious candidate for president in newspapers such as the Washington post, and the new York times, or there could be a positive article in the time magazine.
-they could be offered an in depth interview on serious political talk shows such as face the nations (CBS)< news hour (PBS0, or one of CNN’s political talk shows such as state of the union with Jake tapper, or situation room with wolf blitzer.
-candidate could also use social media sites such as TikTok, Facebook, twitter Instagram, snapchat and even TikTok.
what is the candidate announcements in the invisible primary?
-there are formal announcements of candidates that are entering the presidential race.
-incumbent does normally announce their intention to run then for a second term midway through their first term, Donald trump did fil a form for his re election campaign with the federal election commission on his first day in office.
what is the candidate announcement in the invisible primary?
-since modern primary system in 1776 most candidates challenging the incumbent would announce roughly a year before the first primaries..
-democrat congressman john Delaney broke the second for the earliest official presidential election in history by announcing his bid in July 2017.
-dealeney was the first of 29 candidates to be declared, joe Biden did declare on 25 April in 2019.
-given that Delaney dropped out three days before the first contest in the nomination, the Lowa caucuses an early start to one campaign there is not guarantee for success.
what happens at the invisible primary candidate announcements?
-support for candidate us demonstrated by the opinion polls. some polls could be based on aa certain stage while others are regional
-from time some polling organisations could conduct a nationwide poll.
-they could run head to head match ups to see how candidates of one party could far against fancied contenders from the other party.
-during 2019 polling organisation published frequent head to head match ups between president trump and democratic nominee joe bidden, Elizabeth warren, Bernie sanders.
what happens in the invisible primary televised debates?
-in 1019 democratic party debates highlighted the difference between moderate and progressive wings of the party
-they can get personal, in seventh Presidental debate Elizabeth warren and Bernie sanders did squarell over whether sanders once said that a women could not win a presidency. after the debate she refused to shake his hand, accusing him of calling her a liar on national tv.
what happens in the invisible primary televised party debates?
-not until the final debate that it was whittled down to just two candidates Biden and sanders, the debates were a media circus where very little policy was actually debated.
what did ben Carson say regarding televised debates , who was an unsuccessful candidate in the republicans 2016 nomination race?
” this format is not the best format for convincing anybody of anything. were dealing with sound bites as opposed to being able to explain something in depth. but unfortunately that’s a characteristic of the society that we live in today”
what happens in fundraising in the invisibile primary?
-the invisible primary is also the time when money raising does have to occur to accumulate enough money to be taken seriously.
-it is the money that does bring the ability to campaign and advertise which does in turn improve poll rating which does then bring more money
-some Canidates such as Donald trump in 2016 and Michael Bloomberg in 2020 are in the position to be able to self finance.
-most candidates would need to raise money from individual donors or interest groups.
what evidence is there of fundraising in the recent elections?
-in 2020 democratic primaries candidates thar eventually dropped out did spend dover 1 billion in what would be the most expensive primary in history.
-eventual winner joe bidden did spent $116 million
-Michael Bloomberg did spend over $409 million did not even make the final two.
what is the frontrunning in the invisible primary?
- -over the years it is shown that it has been important to end the invisible primary with being the front runner, according to opinion polls
-normally whatever candidate does lead in the polls just before the primaries and caucuses began is usually confirmed as the nominee. - in 2016 cycle Hilary Clinton and Donald trump did fit the more conventual pattern of the early front runner being confirmed as the nominee
what is the front runners in the invisible primary?
- by end of the invisible primary in January 2016 Hilary Clinton did enjoy a 14 point lead over Berine sanders, and Donald trump a 16 point lead over his nearest rival ted cruz .
-so called invisible primary did show is to be the critical stage in discerning who was the likely presidential candidate would be before a vote was cast.
what is the front runners in the invisible primary?
-when in 2020 democrat invisible primary there was more a mixed picture of who was the front runner.
-joe Biden was ahead in all polls and by December 2019 he did receive 46 endorsements from leading democrats politicians such as senators and governors nearly twice of the number of Berine sanders.
-however when it came to fundraising by end of September 2019 sanders was well out in front. having raised $60 million, $10 million more than the next most effective fundraiser Pete Buttigieg while Biden did come in fifth place.
-does show that more money does not predict eventual victory at this stage of the nomination process. the popularity with the candidate with both public and party insiders would seem to counts more. as shown in 2019.
what is a presidential primary
it is state based election to choose a party candidate for the presidency. it shows support for candidates among ordinary voters.
what is a presidential causes?
a series of state based meeting to choose a party’s candidate for the presidency. they attract unrepetitive and low turnouts.
what is a primary?
a primary is an election to choose a party candidate for an elective office, in this case the presidency. A dimishing number of states hold causes instead
what is a caucuses?
a caucus is a meeting of a party supporter for the selection of a party candidate for an elective office.
what are some features of a caucuses?
-states that hold caucuses are usually large states but thinly populated, states such as iowa, north Dakota, and Nevada.
-2016 republicans held caucuses in 10 states and the democrats held them in 14 states.
-in 2020 the democrat did however hold caucuses in only four states north Dakota, Iowa and Wyoming.
what happens in a causes?
in a caucuses would be voters must attend a meeting rather than to go to a polling station.
-turnout is generally lower in causes than in primaries and those who do not turn out are disporptionatlely more ideological than primary voters
-causes do tend to favour more ideological candidates
-in 2020 just like Bernie sanders who is on the liberal wing of the democratic party did have soe strongest signs in a causes. winning two out of the four states and in three states finishing above joe bide
what was the result of the democratic ausus result in 2020 in iowa?
- Pete Buttigieg (26.6%)
- Berine sanders (26.1%)
- Elizabeth warren ( 18%)
- joe bidden (15.8%)
what was the result of the Nevada caucuses in 2020 ?
- Berine sanders ( 46.6% )
- joe biden (20.2%)
- pete Buttigieg (16.2%)
- elizabeth warren ( 9.7%)
what was the result of the north dakota caucuses in 2020 ?
- bernie sanders (53.3%)
- joe Biden (39. 8%)
- elizabeth warren (2.5%)
- amy klobuchar (1.5%)
what was the result of the wymong caucuses in 2020 ?
- joe biden (72.2%)
- bernie sanders ( 27.8%)
what was the case of 2020 democratic iowa caucuses?
-outcome of 2020 democratic Iowa Caucuses was shrouded in controversy
-took place in February 3 results were delayed for three days due to mainly problems with a newly created app and a coding error that was meant to simplify and speed up the process.
-democratic national committee chair tom perez did state enough is enough and did demand full check
what was the 2020 caucuses case in iowa?
-did turn out that some votes had not been counted tom perez the democratic national committee chair did demand a full check of the all votes
-chaos surrounding the results did lead to the resignation of the local party chair troy price.
-bidden cam fourth and called it a ‘ gut punch’. in terms of picking the eventual winners and in providing a clear and swift result
-seven states did switch from caucuses to the primary system for the 2020 democratic nomination contest the days of causes are numbered.
what is super tuesday?
super Tuesday is a tuesday in February or early march when a number of states concide their presidential primaries and causes to try to gain influence.
what is front loading?
the phenomenon by which a state schedules its presidential primaries and causes earlier in the nomination cycle in an attempt to increase their importance.
what is a closed primary?
a closed primary is a primary in which only registered democrats can vote in the democratic primary and only registered republicans can vote in the republican primary.
what is an open primary?
a primary in which any registered voter can vote in either party’s primary.
what is the timing of the primaries?
states must decide when to hold their primary.
-national parties do usually lay down the earliest and latest possible dates - often mid January to the beginning of june - but within that period each state can decide its own date.
-state such as new Hampshire do schedule their contest earley and on a day where no other primaries are held, giving then hope to give a primary their prominence that it would not otherwise have.
what is the timing of the primary?
-some states do deliberately attempt to range their primaries to concide with those of other, often neighbouring states creating a regional primary.
-2020 the first tuesday in march, when 14 states did arrange their primaries together was dubbed super tuesday.
-first supper tuesday was held in 1988 to attempt to block southern states to increase their importance in the candidate selection process.
what is the timing of the primary?
more states do like to schedule their primary in early election year, believing that the earlier the primaries have more influence over candidate selection. they do move to early scheduling called front loading.
what are the different types of primary and what effect does this have ?
-any registered vote can vote in a primary
-in some states however when you register you are asked to declare your party affiliation a democrat or republican.
what happiness with an open primary?
-do allow what is called cross over voting, it does mean that democrat voters could opt to parcipate in the republican party and vice versa
-2012 the Wisconsin republican open primary 11% of voters did say they were democrats. while mitt romney won the primary overall with 44% of the vote to 37% for rick Santorum among democrats Santorum beat Romney by 20 percentage points.
what did the 2012 suggest in an open primary?
result did suggest either these were conservative democrats who genuinely preferred Santorum’s policies to those of either president Obama or mitt romney, or that they were mischievous democrats deliberately casting a vote for someone they perceived as an easier opponent for president in November.
what do modified primaries do?
-do allow those that have registered as independents to vote in either party primary. for example in new jersey primary in 2020 registered republican voters could vote only in the republican primary, registered democrats could vote only in the democratic primary could vote in either party’s primary.
what other features are there of types of primary’s?
could also be classified according to how delegates to the national party conventions are chosen
-in most primaries candidates win delegates in proportion to the votes that they get. They are known as proportional primaries.
-most states get set a threshold, a minimum percentage of votes that a candidate must receive to get any of the states delegates, usually 10% or 15% of the vote.
-all democrat and almost all republican primaries are now proportional primaries
what happens when an incumbent president is running in the primary’s?
-as donald trump did in 2020 the primaries for the president party go on with little or no coverage at all
-some states don’t both with a primary under such circumstance, e.g in arizona and south Carolina in 2020 were among the states that did dispense with a republican presidential primary.
-incumbent presidents are usually renominated by their parties without any serious opposition. trump did face only token challenges in 2020 bill weld and mark Sanford, were never in serious contention.
what is the role of national party conventions?
all democrats and republicans do hold usually national party convention in the july august, or possibly early September of election year, which does usually last 3 to 4 days.
-traditional for the challenging party to hold convention first
-exceptional conditions of the covid 19 pandemic meant that these for 2020 were virtual affairs.
what is the role of party conventions and how were they affected in 2020 ?
-democratic convention postponed by a month, was held in Milwaukee as planned but on a much smaller scale most speeches were delivered remotely in 2020.
-republican convention was scheduled for charlotte north Carolina, and then moved to Jacksonville Florida when charlottes city authorities refused president trumps demand for the convention to take place wit full crowd and no public health measures such as social distancing
-republicans did hold the first day of their convention including the formal nomination in charlotte under 330 attendees and days in Washington dc including pre taped speeches.
what is the formal functions of national party conventions?
national party conventions were traditionally said to perform three formal functions choosing the partys presidential candidate, choosing the partys vice presidential candidate, deciding the party’s platform.
what is the function of choosing the party presidential candidate?
-conventions do choose party’s presidential candidate in a roll call vote, each state delegates announce which candidate they wish to vote for.
-in pre reform days delegates came to the convention and made up there minds in convention hall but today most delegates arrive at the convention as committed delegates, committed to vote for a candidate in first ballot if a candidate is still in the race. -result of the convention ballot to choose the presidential candidate is a forgotten conclusion as it is known before hand
How can you win the presidential nomination?
-to win the presidential nomination a candidate must receive an absolute majority of the delegate votes. so in 2020 joe Biden had the support of 2687 delegates easily exceeding the 1991 to secure the nomination.
what is the choosing the party presidential candidate?
- to win Presidental nomination a candidate would have to receive an absolute majority of the delegate vote. in 2020 joe Biden did have support of 2,687 delegates exceeding 1991 needed to secure nomination.
-convention does confirm the party’s presidential candidate rather than chooses.
-if no candidate does gain an absolute majority then the balloting does continue until one candidate does so in what is called a brokered convention.
what happens in broken convention and modern convention in the choosing party’s presidential candidate?
-during these ballots delegates doe become free agents, no longer committed to vote for a certain candidate. party leaders do dread this proposect leading as it would to an open display of intra party welfare and factionalism.
-modern party convention is all about positive publicity, display of unity and grabbing the headline for the right reasons. exercises in meangiful democracy they are not.
what is the choosing of the party’s vice presidential candidate in the party national party convention?
-conventions role in choosing the vice president has lost in the last 2 decades.
-convection is n longer he forum for the announcement of the running mate, last convention at which this happened was the republican convention in 1988.
-kamala haris was announced as bidens running mate a few days before the democratic convention in 2020.
what is the deciding of the party platform in one of the function of the national party convention?
party platform is a document that does contain policies which the candidate does intend to pursue if elected. It is put together by the platform commitee under the direction of the party national committee. platform committee holds hearing around the country’s during the first 6 months of the election year.
-national committee does then agree to draft the platform which is presented to delegates at the national party convention. there could be debates at the convention on various parts of the platform known as planks. however recently parties have sought to avoid debates on policy issues at conventions. media does portray such debates as a divided party
what is the deciding of the party platform in one of the function of the national party convention?
the national committee does agree to hold a platform, this could include debates. In 2016 the most continuous platform debate was on issues regarding sexuality at the republican convention. the platform committee did propose a platform with a staunchly conservative view on homosexuality, same sex marriage and transgender issues calling for an overturning of Obergefell v Hodges, (2015) which declared same sex marriage legal.
-when platform came to the convention floor it was however proved a voice vote with only a few nays audible. due in part to covid 19 the republican party did choose not to write a new platform in 2020 but runt the same again.
what is the deciding of the party platform in one of the function of the national party convention?
the national committee does agree to hold a platform, this could include debates. in the 2020 democratic platform there was a 90 page document that did put together policy aspirations. The platform did avoid the Medicare for all policy favoured by sanders during the primaries, instead promising to protect strengthen,, and build upon our bedrock health care programmes that included affordable care act.
-added private insurance need real competition to ensure they have incentive to provide affordable coverage to every American’s.
-there were also endorsement such as supporting statehood for Washington dc and finding a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
what is the deciding of the party platform in one of the function of the national party convention?
the national committee does agree to hold a platform, this could include debates. The democratic platform adopted at its 2020 convention a 90 page document containing a range of policy aspirations across all main areas, foreign and domestic. put together by committee of both progressive and moderate wing of the party, some pledges included the covi 19 pandemic.
-did include increased funding for centre of disease control and prevention, and providing more aid to state and local government for initiative such as contract training.
what is the deciding of the party platform in one of the function of the national party convention?
-a lot of what is in the party platform is little more than support for motherhood, the American dream and apple pie.
-there are significant differences in certain policies.
where is the significant differences on certain policies?
the 2016 republican platform did state the issue on abortion and right to life as’ we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental right to life which cannot be infringed’
the democratic platform on the other hand did assert that ‘ we believe unequivocally, that every woman should have access to quality reproductive health care service, including safe and legal abortion regardless of where she lives, how much money she make or how she is insured’
What is an incumbent president?
an incumbent president is a person who currently hold an office, in this case the elected office. they can benefit from an advantage often called the incumbency effect.
what happens when an incumbent president runs for re election or running?
When an incumbent president is running or re election as Barack Obama did in 2012 the primaries for he president parties go on with little or no coverage at all. Some states do not both with a primary under such circumstances, e. g in 2012 Virginia south Carolina, new York, Florida were among the states that dispensed with a democratic presidential, primary.
Incumbent presidents are usually re nominated by their parties without any serious opposition. It was the case in Ronald Reagan in 1984, bill Clinton in 1996 George w bush in 2004 and Barack Obama in 2012.
what have been the results of the incumbent president running in the primaries ?
President Obama was embarrassed during 2012 democratic primaries to receive less than 90% of the primary vote in 14 states, failing to reach 60% in west Virginia, Arkansas (58%), Kentucky (58%), and Oklahoma (57%).
In west Virginia the president opponent Keith Judd did win more than 40% of the vote despite the fact that he was at the time serving a lengthy prison sentence for extortion. President Obama showing of 92% of the total democratic primary vote was certainly in line with other incumbent presidents who went on to win in November. It was better performance than president Clinton in 1996.
What was Ronald Reagan result of the primary vote as am incumbent president?
Ronald Reagan was republican and in the year 1984 he did receive 99% of the primary vote
the result of the election was that he won.
What was Ronald Reagan result of the primary vote as am incumbent president?
Ronald Reagan was republican and in the year 1984 he did receive 99% of the primary vote
the result of the election was that he won.
what was the primary result of george bush as incumbent president?
george w bush, republican president in the year 2004 who received 98% percentage of the primary vote. the result of the election was that they won.
what was the primary result of barrack Obama as an incumbent president?
barrack Obama was democratic and did run for re-election in 2012 he did receive 92% of the primary vote. the result was that he won.
what was the primary result of bill Clinton as running as an incumbent president?
bill Clinton was democratic, and running for re-election in the year 1996. The percentage of primary vote was 89 per cent. The result was that he won the election by 89 per cent of the primary vote.
what was the primary result of Goerge hw bush in running as incumbent president?
George hw bush was a republican incumbent president who did loose his election as he only received 72 % of the primary vote in 1992.
what was the primary result of Gerald ford as incumbent president?
Gerald ford was a republican president that did have 53 per cent of the primary vote. He did loose the election.
what was the primary result of jimmy carter running as incumbent president?
jimmy carter is democratic president in year 1980 he did run for the election, and did receive 51 per cent of the primary vote. the result of the election was that jimmy carter did loose.
what happened in the elections of 1976, 1980, 1992?
in the elections of 1976, 1980 and 1992, the incumbent president did face significant opposition from within his own party and therefore the primaries and caucuses were hard fought even in the president party.
In 1976 the republican president Gerald ford faced a strong challenge from the former governor of California Ronald Reagan..
what happened in the elections of 1976, 1980 and 1992?
in 1980 president jimmy carter faced an equally stiff challenge from senator Edward Kennedy in the democratic primaries. Senator Kennedy won 12 states contest including the primaries in new York and California.
In 1992 president George hw bush had to fight off a challenge from the conservative commentator pat Buchanan in the republican primaries. Although Buchanan did not win any of the primaries and caucuses. Hi 37% in the new Hampshire primary was a great embarrassment for bush, Buchanan went on to win more than a quarter of the vote in a dozen states.
what happened in the elections of 1976, 1980 and 1992?
although all these three presidents saw off their primary challengers, they all went on to loose in a general election. A strong primary challenge for the president makes him damaged goods even before he faces his real opponents in the general election.
Criticism that is made of the president within his own party is the primaries is often recycled as damaging campaign material by his opponent later in the year. As robin toner said in the new York times in February 1992 of Buchanan’s criticism of president bush in that year republican primaries ‘ down the road Mr bush will confront a democratic party that has now been given a road map of his vulnerabilities’ by Mr Buchanan and what exactly happened.
what was shown in the elections of 1976, 1980 and 1992?
As a parody of presidents bush broken pledge not to raise taxes, ‘read my lips no taxes’ Buchanan has used the slogan ‘ read out lips no second term needless to say, this did become a favourite with the campaigns of bill Clinton and ross Perot in the autumn of 1992. This is why it is so important for an incumbent president to avoid an significant challenge in the primaries.
what is the voter turnout in the primaries?
Since the McGovern Fraser reforms of the nomination process in the late 1960s participation in presidential primaries has greatly increased. This has been partly due to more states hold primaries.
In 1968 the last nomination cycle under the pre reform system, just 12 million people participate in the 17 democratic and 16 republican presidential primaries, which did represent around 11 % of the voting age population.
-in 2016 around 61 million people participated in the 37 democratic and republican primaries, which represented under 29% of the voting age population.
what is the voter turnout in primaries?
Turnout does vary form state to state, even within the same election cycle. For example in 2016 while new Hampshire over 52% of eligible voters participate in the presidential primaries turnout was just 18% in Louisiana. In 2016 14 states saw over one third of eligible voters participate in the primaries The lowest runouts were as usual in caucus states with the Kansas caucuses attracting just 5.5 % of he states eligible voters. Even the Iowa caucuses for all the media hoopla attracted a turnout of just 15. 7%.
how is demography affect the turnout in primaries?
Turnout does vary between demographic groups. Stephen Wayne (2001) found that the better educated, higher income and older member of the electorate are a lot more likely to vote in primaries than are younger, less educated and poorer people
In the north Carolina republican primary in 2016 for example over half of the voters had a college degree one third earned more than $100000 per year and three quarters of voters were 45 or older with only 6% being aged 24 or younger.
There is a belief that primary voters are more ideologically extreme in their political beliefs than the general election voters, though the evidence if mixed. In the same north Carolina republican primary 37% described themselves as being very conservative.
how does the type of primary affect the turnout in primaries?
Open primaries that do allow any registered voter to vote in either primary, are likely to attract higher turnout than closed primaries in which only self identified party supporters can vote. This is true when only one party does have a competitive race, as was shown in 2012.
Of 11states which held open primaries in the republican contest in 2012 ten did see an increase in turnout on 2008 with turnout in Wisconsin up 92% and in Mississippi up 105%. On the other hand of the 15 states that did hold closed primaries in the 212 republican contest, only two did seen an increase in turnout.
In Connecticut turnout was down 61% on 2008 and in new York it was down 71%.
how does the competitiveness of the nomination race affect voter turnout in primaries ?
In 2008 and 2016 both parties that had a competitive nomination race, turnout was significantly higher than in 2004 and 2012 when only one party did have a competitive race, neither john Kerry for the democrats in 2004 nor mitt Romney for the republican inspired a great deal of voter enthusiasm.
how does whether the nomination been decided or not affect voter turnout in primaries?
Primaries scheduled early in the nomination race will be more likely to attract higher turnout than those coming towards the end of the cycle when the identity of the nominee is already known.
In 2008 the new York republican primary was held on 5 February, that years super Tuesday when the race for the republican nomination was still undecided and a total of 642, 894 voters were cast.
In 2012 the new York republican primary was held on 24 April by which most of the republican candidate had dropped out of the race, leaving mitt Romney as the presumed nominee. Romney won 62% of the vote but the turnout was just 189, 599. This again accounts for the higher than usual primary turnout in 2016, with both parties nomination contest running well into the second half of the primary calendar.
how is the primaries more increasingly important
The presidential primaries play an important role in the process of choosing presidential candidates. In the 1950s and 1960s a lot of states did not hold a presidential primaries. The parties preferred to control candidates selection through a series of state party conventions. Whereas any registered voter can vote in a primary of caucus only certain party members could participate in these state conventions.
In the ‘ smoke filled rooms’ decisions were made by party bosses powerful state leaders such as city mayors. It was them that did decide who would become the party’s presidential candidate. The few primaries that were held were not decisive. In 1969 in neither party did the overall winner of the primaries get his party presidential nomination.
how is there more increasingly importance of primaries?
The system was argued to be undemocratic, elitist non participatory and potentially corrupt. It was reformed at the instigation of the democratic party following the events at its 1968 national party convention.. that convention chose vice president Humphrey as the party’s presidential candidate despite the fact that he had not entered any primaries at all. The few votes he received were by voters that did write so called ‘ write in’ votes.
Following Humphreys loss to Nixon in the general election that November the democrats established the McGovern Fraser commission to recommend reforms of the presidential nomination process. It was this commission that did lead to significant increase in the number of states holding presidential primaries from 1976 onwards. The nomination process has changed a lot over the last 40 years.