Chapter 9 Key Terms

Front 1

Nomination

Back 1

the official endorsement of a candidate for office by a political party. Generally, success in the nomination game requires momentum, money and media attention.

Front 2

campaign strategy

Back 2

the master game plan candidates lay out to guide their electoral campaign.

Front 3

national party convention

Back 3

the supreme power within each of the parties. Meets every four years to nominate the party’s presidential and vice presidential candidates and to write the party’s platform

Front 4

Caucus

Back 4

A caucus is a meeting of all state party leaders for selecting delegates to the national party convention. Caucuses are usually organized as a pyramid.

Front 5

presidential primaries

Back 5

elections in which voters in a state vote for a candidate (or delegates pledged to him or her). Most delegates to the national party convention are chosen this way.

Front 6

McGovern-Fraser Commission

Back 6

commission formed at the 1968 Democratic convention in response to demands for reform by minority groups and others who sought better representation.

Front 7

Superdelegates

Back 7

national party leaders who automatically get a delegate slot at the Democratic National Party Convention.

Front 8

Frontloading

Back 8

the recent tendency of states to hold primaries early in the calendar in order to capitalize on media attention.

Front 9

national primary

Back 9

a proposal by critics of the caucuses and presidential primaries, which would replace the electoral methods with a nationwide primary held early in the election year.

Front 10

regional primaries

Back 10

regional primaries are 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.

Front 11

party platform

Back 11

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.

Front 12

direct mail

Back 12

a high tech method of raising money for a political cause or candidate. It involves sending information and requests for money to people whose names appear on lists of those who have supported similar views or candidates in the past.

Front 13

Federal Election Campaign Act

Back 13

a law passed in 1974 for reforming campaign finances. The Act created the Federal Election Commission (FEC), provided public financing for presidential primaries and general elections, limited presidential campaign spending, required disclosure, and attempted to limit contributions.

Front 14

Federal Election Commission

Back 14

a six-member bipartisan agency created by the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1974. The FEC administers and enforces campaign finance laws.

Front 15

Presidential Election Campaign Fund

Back 15

is money from the $3 federal income tax checkoff goes into this fund, and is then distributed to qualified candidates to subsidize their presidential campaigns.

Front 16

Buckley v. Valeo

Back 16

Supreme Court case in which the court struck down the portion of the federal election campaign act what limited the amount that individuals could contribute to their own campaigns, as it violated free speech.

Front 17

matching funds

Back 17

contributions of up to $250 which are matched from the Presidential Election Campaign Fund to candidates for the Presidential nomination who qualify and agree to meet certain conditions such as limit their overall spending.

Front 18

soft money

Back 18

political contributions earmarked for party-building expenses at the grassroots level or for generic party advertising. Unlike money that goes to the campaign of a particular candidate such as party donations, these contributions are not subject to contribution laws. For a time, such contributions were unlimited, until they were banned by the McCain-Feingold Act.

Front 19

political action committees (PACs)

Back 19

funding vehicles created by the 1974 campaign finance reforms. A corporation, union or some interest group can create a PAC and register it with the FEC, which will meticulously monitor the PAC’s expenditures.

Front 20

selective perception

Back 20

the phenomenon that people often pay the most attention to things they already agree with and interpret them according to their own predispositions.