Chapter 9
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
Superdelegates
National party leaders who automatically get a delegate slot at the Democratic national party convention
primary election
An election intended to select a party's candidates for elective office
coattails
The tendency of lesser-known or weaker candidates to profit from the presence on the ticket of stronger candidate
Protest
a form of political participation designed to achieve policy change through dramatic and unconventional tactics: draws attention to media
Campaign Strategy
The master game plan candidates lay out to guide their electoral campaign
Frontloading
The recent tendency of states to hold primaries early in the calendar in order to capitalize on media attention
general election
An election used to fill an elective office
incumbent
The person currently in office
Civil Disobedience
a form of political participation designed that reflects a conscious decision to break the law believed to be immoral and suffer the consequences
National Party Convention
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 Primary
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
closed primary
A primary election in which voters must first declare to which party they belong
malapportionment
The result of having districts of very unequal size
Violence
extreme means of pressuring the govt to change is policies
Caucus
Caucus
Regional Primaries
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
open primary
A primary in which voters can vote for the candidates of either the Democratic or the Republican party
gerrymandering
Drawing a district in some bizarre or unusual manner in order to create an electoral advantage
Conventional Participation
includes many widely accepted modes of influencing govt (voting, trying to persuade others, ringing doorbells for petition, running for office)
Presidential Primaries
Elections in which voters in a state vote for a candidate (or delegates pledged to him or her). Most delegates to the national party conventions are chosen this way.
Party Platforms
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 rough proportion to each candidate's strength. It is the best formal statement of a party's beliefs.
blanket primary
A primary in which voters can vote for the Democratic candidates, the Republican candidates, or some from each party.
runoff primary
A primary in which, to be successful, the candidate must receive a majority of all votes cast in that race
Unconventional Participation
includes activities that are often dramatic (protesting, civil disobedience, and even violence)