1. Chapter 9: Nominations, Elections and Campaigns
1. Form a campaign organization, 2. run in primaries and caucuses, 3. participate in televised debates, 4. announce candidacy, 5. conduct electoral vote, 6. attend national convention, 7. raise funds, 8. hold popular vote, 9. build a coalition of supporters, 10. develop a campaign strategy
What order would you do the above actions if you wanted to run for President…?
Just write the # 
Chapter 9: Nominations, Elections and Campaigns

2. Changes in the Presidential Nomination Process
OBJECTIVE: You will get a description of an aspect of the presidential nomination process. If your description fits the process pre-1968, line up by the window. If your description fits the process post-1968, line up by the supply area.
THEN discuss your attributes (qualities).
LATER we will compare the processes and decide which process is more democratic.

3. Pre-1968
Post-1968
Party Dominated
Few Primaries
Short Campaigns
Easy money
Limited Media Coverage
Late Decisions
Open Conventions
Candidate Dominated
Many Primaries
Long Campaigns
Difficult Fundraising
Media Focused
Front-Loaded
Closed Conventions

4. American Voting Culture
Americans vote for more candidates more often than anywhere else in the world.
British Voting Culture
British elections are not held on a fixed calendar and are timed to political needs. Voters only choose among one small set of candidates running for a single seat in parliament

6. The Evolution of Campaigning
An election campaign is an organized effort to persuade voters to choose one candidate over others competing for the same office
Today, campaigns seldom rely much on political parties and rather focus on political consultants to devise sound bites, using the Internet to raise money and the media to deliver messages

7. Nominations
Primary Elections are preliminary elections conducted within the party to select its candidates
Primary voters tend to nominate candidates who are more ideologically extreme than the party as a whole would prefer
In the 2010 Midterm election, tea party leaders worked to nominate more conservative candidates over more moderate (and more electable) candidates

8. Types of Primaries
Closed Primary: Voters must register their party affiliation to vote on potential candidates
Open Primaries: Any voter, regardless of party registration or affiliation, can choose either party’s ballot
Modified Closed Primaries: Individual state parties decide whether to allow those not registered with either party to vote with their party registrants
Modified Open Primaries: all those note already registered with a party can choose any party ballot and vote with their party registrants

9. Nomination for President
Each party formally chooses its presidential and vice-presidential candidates at a national convention held every four years in the summer prior to the November election
What are the changes in the Presidential Nomination Process?

10. Presidential Primary
A special primary held to select delegates to attend a party’s national nominating convention to elect the president
Democrats are PROPORTIONAL (Above 15%)
Republicans are WINNER-TAKES-ALL
Most delegates selected in primaries are publically committed to specific candidates and one can usually tell before a party’s summer nominating convention who is going to be the nominee

11. Front-Loaded Primaries
The importance of Iowa (first caucus) and New Hampshire (first primary)
MN has a caucus system. What is a caucus:
The contests in Iowa and New Hampshire usually quickly shrink the field of candidates.

12. Super Tuesday The largest number of states selects the most delegates
In 2008, 24 states had primaries on the same day

13. Main Points
When no incumbent is in the White House, the presidential nominating process becomes contested in both parties
An incumbent president usually encounters little or no opposition for re-nomination within the party
The Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary do matter
Candidates eventually favored by most party identifiers usually win their party’s nomination
Candidates who win the nomination do so largely on their own and oew little or nothing to the national party organization, which usually does not promote a candidate

14. Elections
By national law, all seats in the House of Representatives and one-third of the seats in the Senate are filled in a general election held in early-November in even-numbered years. Mid-term elections happen between Presidential elections
The Electoral College…

15. The Electoral College
The Constitution specifies that a candidate needs 270 votes to win the election
The popular vote from each state results in the awarding of ELECTORS
The number of ELECTORS comes from the number of Senators and representatives in the House of Representatives from each state

16. Abolish it? Arguments for the Electoral College
Arguments Against the Electoral College
Designed to insulate the office of the President from popular passions
Gives small states more weight in the vote
Presidential campaigns visit areas (though leave out some) rather than campaigning only on TV
Prevents nationwide recount
Swing states get additional attention
Popular vote winner might not win the election

17. What the author meant by the Presidential Election being federal rather than national…
Decided by electoral vote
Election decided in specific swing/ battleground states
Decided by popular vote
Would be more majoritarian

18. Congressional Elections
Straight ticket voting means a voter votes for candidates from the same party
Split ticket voting means a voter votes for candidates from more than one political party
It’s normal for midterm elections to show losses for the President’s party. People are frustrated things aren’t done more quickly.
In 2010 the Democrats lost more than 60 seats in the House

19. Campaigns The political context Financing
Is the candidate an incumbent or a challenger?
Incumbents have a much higher chance of being elected
Incumbents are re-elected in the House 95% of the time
Financing
“There are four parts to any campaign. The candidate, the issues of the candidate, the campaign organization and the money to run the campaign with. Without money, you can forget the other three.”

20. Regulating Campaign Finance
Federal Election Commission (FEC) created in Bipartisan agency of 6 members that oversees the financing of national election campaigns
Appointments are staggered so the same president does not appoint 2 people
Set campaign finance laws for hard (direct contributions to candidates) and soft money (donations to party committees)

21. Citizen’s United v. Federal Election Commission
Current Regulations
BCRA limits
$2,400 to a specific candidate (two-year cycle)
$10,000 to each party or political committee (per year)
$30,400 per year to any national committee
Citizen’s United v. Federal Election Commission
A bitterly divided 2010 Supreme Court case that banned spending limits placed on corporations citing the defense of freedom of speech while liberals viewed it as an opening to the corruption of corporate influences

22. Public Financing of Presidential Campaigns
In short, if candidates took the public financing, there would be a cap set at $42.05 million in primary campaigns
Obama turned down the funds in 2008 and ended up raising $183 million for the primary
The cap for presidential elections is $84 million
Both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama refused public funds to raise more money
Other topics: Internet fundraising and bundlers– people who college donations from individuals and bundle them to deliver them to the candidate

24. Obama & Romney

25. Is money power?
What impact will Citizen’s United have on future U.S. elections?
TALK TO YOUR 8 O’CLOCK PARTNER!

26. Election Strategies & Tactics
Party-centered strategy– relies heavily on voters’ partisan identification as well as on the party’s organization
Issue-oriented strategy– seeks support from groups that feel strongly about issues and policies
Candidate-oriented strategy– depends on the candidate’s personal qualities

27. Making the News… Campaign managers cater to reporters’ deadlines
News coverage revolves around sound bites and horse race journalism focusing bandwagons, losing ground, the front-runner and the likely loser
Media events: Media events:

28. Advertising the Candidates
First objective of paid advertising is name recognition
A decision must be made if the campaign is to “go negative” or focus on “contrast ads”– criticize opponent and advocate their own policies
10 Best Campaign Commercials

29. Using the Internet
Candidates like the Internet because it is fast, easy to use and is cheap– saving money on mailing costs and phone calls
More than 3 million Americans have donated money online for Obama’s campaign (grassroots organizing)
Romney depends more on bundlers from the business world

30. Explaining Voter Choice
PARTY IDENTIFICATION
More than ½ of the electorate knows how they will vote before the end of the party convention
Democrats do not turn out to vote as consistently as Republicans
ISSUES AND POLICIES
Incumbents have their record in office to get them elected (or not)

31. CANDIDATES’ ATTRIBUTES
Candidates qualities are especially important to voters who lack good information about candidates’ past performance and policy stands
Some fall back on personal beliefs about religion, gender and race in making political decisions

32. Evaluating Voting Choice
Many studies show that people focus less on issues than party identification or candidate attributes

33. Campaign Effects
The Television Campaign– often promotes “sound bites” so candidates cannot rely on TV to show their message
ADS, ADS, ADS
Obama aired a 30 minute ad during the 2008 campaign
The Presidential Debates

34. Campaigns, Elections and Parties
Highly personalized, candidate centered and conducted outside of the control of party organizations
Majoritarian model & parties– parties increase responsiveness
Pluralist model & parties– two giant interest groups

35. NOW… We will have our own Presidential Election!
OBJECTIVE: Students will take on the roles of presidential candidates, advisors and voters

36. Cory Matthews– Shelby, Ben Terry Lankan– Melissa, Kristina
Pat Donnellson– Huesee, Nanney
Casey McMahon– Jame, Kathy
Taylor Andrews– Vang, Hob
JA Curley– J-Son, Rachel
Voters:
Toua, Jasmine, Sunny, Brittany, Dorian (R)
Chi Nou, Evin, Douachee, Kong, Sabrina (D)
HW: Complete the Handouts for Debate Prep

37. Debate Each candidate gets to give a 30 second intro
The national town hall meeting format will feature audience questions. Each candidate must be asked 2 questions.
Candidates will be limited to 1 minutes (speaking)
Each candidate can give a 30 second closing
After the meeting, we will hold primary elections.

38. What sets you apart from the other Democratic/ Republican candidates?

39. Primary Elections
The candidate with the most votes will receive the party nomination (we are going to skip the national conventions to move right to campaigning and the presidential election)

40. Choosing a VP… Candidates who won your primaries, choose a VP.
(You might want to keep in mind who got the most votes other than you in your party…)

41. Debrief Audience: Was this a good way to learn about candidates?
Candidates: How did it feel to be asked questions? What was exciting or challenging about the experience? What might you do differently if you had a chance to do it again?
Everyone: Do you think this is the best forum to learn about candidates and their positions? Do you think the primary process is an effective way to choose the party’s nominee? How were the steps you took similar or different from a real election?

42. Interest Group Meet & Greet
Goal: Interest groups will try to get influence by giving power tokens to candidates who promise to do something for the interest group.
Only 1 candidate will win the election… You might want to support multiple candidates.

43. To Do:
Give a quick speech about WHO you are and WHAT you stand for (Interest groups)
Candidates and Interest Groups will meet (candidates and their campaign manager and vice president might want to split up to meet as many people as possible)
If candidates accept Power Tokens or endorsements from an interest group whose cause they could not realistically support, candidates will be penalized

44. Debrief
Which candidate did the best? Why do you think interest groups were more likely to support that candidate?
What is the relationship between candidates and interest groups?
How might this relationship be beneficial for democracy? How might it be harmful?

45. Presidential Election
Presidential candidates and VPs can select one more person to campaign with them (could be former candidates to try to get his/ her former supporters to side with you)
Citizens: Get into your assigned state and decide Which issues should are most important to your state?
Nominees: Decide which states you should focus on and why.
Campaign session: you have 10 minutes to campaign. Candidates can go to as many states as they’d like. No state can stop a nominee as he or she is traveling.