Chapter 9 Flashcards
Campaign strategy
The master game plan candidates lay out to guide their electoral campaign
Nomination
The official endorsement of a candidate for office by a political party. Generally, success in the nomination game requires momentum, money and media attention.
National party convention
The supreme power within each of the parties. This convention meets every four years to nominate the party’s presidential and Vice Presidential candidates and to write the party’s platform
McGovern-Fraser Commission
A commission formed at the 1968 Democratic convention in response to demands for reform by minority groups and others who sought better representation
Super delegates
National party leaders who automatically get a delegate slot at the national party convention
Invisible primary
The period before the votes are cast when candidates compete to win early support from the elite of the party and to create a positive first impression of their leadership skills
Cacus
A system of selecting conventional delegates used in about a dozen states in which voters must attend an open meeting to express their presidential preference.
Primary
Elections in which a states voters go to the polls to express their preference for a party’s nominee for president. Most delegates to the national party conventions are chosen this way.
Front loading
The recent tendency of states to hold primaries early in the calendar in order to capitalize on media attention
Party platform
A political party’s statement of its goals and policies for the next four years. The platform is drafted prior to the party convention by a committee whose members are chosen in tough proportion to each candidates strength. It is the best formal statement of the party’s beliefs
Direct mail
A method of raising money for a political cause or candidate, in which information and requests for money are sent to the people whose names appear on the lists of those who have supported similar views or candidates in the past.
Campaign contributions
Donations that are made directly to a candidate or a party and that must be reported to the FEC. As of 2012, individuals were allowed to donate up to 2,500 per election to a candidate and up to 30,800 to a political party.
Independent expenditures
Expenses on behalf of a political message that are made by groups that are uncoordinated with any candidate’s campaign.
Federal election campaign act
A law passed in 1974 for reforming campaign finances. The act created the federal election commission and provided for limits on and disclosure of campaign contributions
Political actions committees
Groups that raise money from individuals and then distribute it in the form of contributions to candidates that the group supports. PACs must register with the FEC and report their donations and contributions to it. Individuals contributions to a PAC are limited to 5000 a year and a make give up to only 5000 to a candidate for each election
Federal election commission
A six member bipartisan agency created by the federal election campaign act of 1974. The federal election commissions administers and enforces campaign financing laws
Soft money
Political contributions earmarked for party building expenses at the grassroots level or for generic party advertising. For a time, such contributions were unlimited, until they were banned by the McCain Fiengold act
527 groups
Independent political groups that are not subject to contribution restrictions because they do not directly seek the election of particular candidates. Section 527 of the tax code specifies that contributions to such groups must be reported to the IRS
Citizens united vs federal election commission
A 2010 landmark Supreme Court case that ruled that individuals, corporations, and unions could donate unlimited amounts of money to groups that make independent politic expenditures.
501(c) groups
Groups that are exempt for reporting their contributions and can receive unlimited contributions. Section 501c of the tax code specifies that such groups cannot spend more than half their funds on political activities.
Super PACs
Independent expenditure only PACs are known as super PACs because they may endorse candidates. Their contributions and expenditure must be periodically reported to the FEC
Selective perception
The phenomenon that peoples beliefs often guide what they pay the most attention to and how they interpret events
Suffrage
The legal right to vote in the United States, gradually extended to virtually all citizens over the age of 18
Civic duty
The belief that in order to support democratic government, a citizen should vote
Voter registration
A system adopted by the states that requires voters to register prior to voting. Some states require citizens to register as much as 30 days in advance, whereas others permit Election Day registration
Moter voter act
At 1993 act that requires states to permit people to register to vote when they apply for a drive’s license
Mandate theory of elections
The idea that the winning candidate has a mandate from the people to carry out his or her platforms and politics. Politicians like the theory better than political scientists do.
Policy voting
Elector choices that are made on the basis of the voters policy preferences and where the candidates stand on policy issues.
Battleground states
The key states that the presidential campaigns focus on because they are most likely to decide the outcome of the electoral college vote
