Chapter 7 Study Guide Flashcards
The official endorsement of a candidate for office by a political party.
Nomination
The master game plan candidates lay out to guide their electoral campaign.
Campaign Strategy
The supreme power within each of the parties. The convention meets every four years to nominate the party’s presidential and vice-presidential candidates and to write the party’s platform.
National Party Convention
A meeting of all state party leaders for selecting delegates to the national party convention. Caucuses are usually organized as a pyramid.
Caucus
Elections in which voters in a state vote for a candidate.
Presidential Primaries
A commission formed at the 1968 Democratic convention in response to demands for reform by minority groups and others who sought better representation.
McGovern-Fraser Commission
National party leaders who automatically get a delegate slot at the Democratic national party convention.
Superdelegates
The recent tendency of states to hold primaries early in the calendar in order to capitalize on media attention.
Frontloading
A proposal by critics of the caucuses and presidential primaries, which would replace these electoral methods with a nationwide primary held early in the election year.
National Primary
A proposal by critics of the caucuses and presidential primaries to replace these electoral methods with a series of primaries held in each geographic region.
Regional Primaries
A political party’s statement of its goals and policies for the next four years.
Party Platform
A high-tech method of raising money for a political cause or candidate.
Direct Mail
A law passed in 1974 for reforming campaign finances. The act created the Federal Election Commission, provided public financing for presidential primaries and general elections, limited presidential campaign spending, required disclosure, and attempted to limit contributions.
Federal Election Camapaign Act
A six-member bipartisan agency created by the Federal Election Campaign Act o f194. It administers and enforces campaign finance laws.
Federal Elections Commission (FEC)
Money from the $3 federal income tax check-off goes into this fund, which is then distributed to qualified candidates to subsidize their presidential campaigns.
Presidential Election Campaign Fund
