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
Just write the #

Changes in the Presidential
Nomination Process
0 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 post1968, line up by the supply area.
THEN discuss your attributes (qualities).
LATER we will compare the processes and decide which
process is more democratic.
Pre-1968
0 Party Dominated
0 Few Primaries
0 Short Campaigns
0 Easy money
0 Limited Media
Coverage
0 Late Decisions
0 Open Conventions
Post-1968
0 Candidate
Dominated
0 Many Primaries
0 Long Campaigns
0 Difficult
Fundraising
0 Media Focused
0 Front-Loaded
0 Closed Conventions
American Voting Culture
0 Americans vote for more candidates more often than
anywhere else in the world.
British Voting Culture
0 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
The Evolution of Campaigning
0 An election campaign is an organized effort to
persuade voters to choose one candidate over others
competing for the same office
0 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
Nominations
0 Primary Elections are preliminary elections
conducted within the party to select its candidates
0 Primary voters tend to nominate candidates who are
more ideologically extreme than the party as a whole
would prefer
0 In the 2010 Midterm election, tea party leaders
worked to nominate more conservative candidates
over more moderate (and more electable) candidates
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2010/02/05/pm.
2.tea.party.party.cnn
Types of Primaries
0 Closed Primary: Voters must register their party
affiliation to vote on potential candidates
0 Open Primaries: Any voter, regardless of party
registration or affiliation, can choose either party’s
ballot
0 Modified Closed Primaries: Individual state parties
decide whether to allow those not registered with
either party to vote with their party registrants
0 Modified Open Primaries: all those note already
registered with a party can choose any party ballot
and vote with their party registrants
Nomination for President
0 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
0 What are the changes in the Presidential Nomination
Process?
Presidential Primary
0 A special primary held to select delegates to attend a
party’s national nominating convention to elect the
president
0 Democrats are PROPORTIONAL (Above 15%)
0 Republicans are WINNER-TAKES-ALL
0 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
Front-Loaded Primaries
0 The importance of Iowa (first caucus) and New
Hampshire (first primary)
0 MN has a caucus system. What is a caucus:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fobO82jbNRg
0 The contests in Iowa and New Hampshire usually
quickly shrink the field of candidates.
Super Tuesday
0 The largest number of
states selects the most delegates
0 In 2008, 24 states had primaries on the same day
Main Points
0 When no incumbent is in the White House, the presidential
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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
Elections
0 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 earlyNovember in even-numbered years. Mid-term
elections happen between Presidential elections
0 The Electoral College…
The Electoral College
0 The Constitution specifies that a candidate needs 270
votes to win the election
0 The popular vote from each state results in the
awarding of ELECTORS
0 The number of ELECTORS comes from the number of
Senators and representatives in the House of
Representatives from each state
0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUS9mM8Xbbw
Abolish it?
Arguments for the
Electoral College
0 Designed to insulate the
office of the President
from popular passions
0 Gives small states more
weight in the vote
0 Presidential campaigns
visit areas (though
leave out some) rather
than campaigning only
on TV
0 Prevents nationwide
recount
Arguments Against
the Electoral College
0 Swing states get
additional attention
0 Popular vote
winner might not
win the election
0
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/p
olitics/2012/08/31/al-gore-electoralcollege-current.current-tv
What the author meant by the
Presidential Election being federal
rather than national…
Federal
0 Decided by
electoral vote
0 Election decided in
specific swing/
battleground states
National
0 Decided by popular
vote
0 Would be more
majoritarian
Congressional Elections
0 Straight ticket voting means a voter votes for
candidates from the same party
0 Split ticket voting means a voter votes for candidates
from more than one political party
0 It’s normal for midterm elections to show losses for
the President’s party. People are frustrated things
aren’t done more quickly.
0 In 2010 the Democrats lost more than 60 seats in the
House
Campaigns
0 The political context
0 Is the candidate an incumbent or a challenger?
0 Incumbents have a much higher chance of being elected
0 Incumbents are re-elected in the House 95% of the time
0 Financing
0 “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.”
Regulating Campaign Finance
0 Federal Election Commission (FEC) created in 1974.
Bipartisan agency of 6 members that oversees the
financing of national election campaigns
0 Appointments are staggered so the same president does
not appoint 2 people
0 Set campaign finance laws for hard (direct contributions
to candidates) and soft money (donations to party
committees)
Current Regulations
0 BCRA limits
0 $2,400 to a specific candidate (two-year cycle)
0 $10,000 to each party or political committee (per year)
0 $30,400 per year to any national committee
Citizen’s United v. Federal Election
Commission
0 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
Public Financing of
Presidential Campaigns
0 In short, if candidates took the public financing, there
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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
Obama & Romney
Is money power?
0 What impact will Citizen’s United have on future U.S.
elections?
TALK TO YOUR 8 O’CLOCK PARTNER!
Election Strategies & Tactics
0 Party-centered strategy– relies heavily on voters’
partisan identification as well as on the party’s
organization
0 Issue-oriented strategy– seeks support from groups
that feel strongly about issues and policies
0 Candidate-oriented strategy– depends on the
candidate’s personal qualities
Making the News…
0 Campaign managers cater to reporters’ deadlines
0 News coverage revolves around sound bites and horse
race journalism focusing bandwagons, losing ground,
the front-runner and the likely loser
0 Media events: Media events:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40Nqzx4Z1FA
Advertising the Candidates
0 First objective of paid advertising is name recognition
0 A decision must be made if the campaign is to “go
negative” or focus on “contrast ads”– criticize
opponent and advocate their own policies
0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1D1jI61ckY
0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F4LtTlktm0
0 10 Best Campaign Commercials
http://blogs.kqed.org/lowdown/2012/10/03/ten-of-the-bestpresidential-campaign-commercials-of-all-time/
Using the Internet
0 Candidates like the Internet because it is fast, easy to
use and is cheap– saving money on mailing costs and
phone calls
0 More than 3 million Americans have donated money
online for Obama’s campaign (grassroots organizing)
0 Romney depends more on bundlers from the business
world
Explaining Voter Choice
PARTY IDENTIFICATION
0 More than ½ of the electorate knows how they will
vote before the end of the party convention
0 Democrats do not turn out to vote as consistently as
Republicans
ISSUES AND POLICIES
0 Incumbents have their record in office to get them
elected (or not)
CANDIDATES’ ATTRIBUTES
0 Candidates qualities are especially important to
voters who lack good information about candidates’
past performance and policy stands
0 Some fall back on personal beliefs about religion,
gender and race in making political decisions
Evaluating Voting Choice
0 Many studies show that people focus less on issues
than party identification or candidate attributes
Campaign Effects
0 The Television Campaign– often promotes “sound
bites” so candidates cannot rely on TV to show their
message
0 ADS, ADS, ADS
0 Obama aired a 30 minute ad during the 2008
campaign http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0JhEtzch4Y
0 The Presidential Debates
Campaigns, Elections and
Parties
0 Highly personalized, candidate centered and
conducted outside of the control of party
organizations
0 Majoritarian model & parties– parties increase
responsiveness
0 Pluralist model & parties– two giant interest groups
NOW… We will have our own
Presidential Election!
OBJECTIVE: Students will take on the roles of
presidential candidates, advisors and voters
0 Cory Matthews– Shelby, Ben
0 Terry Lankan– Melissa, Kristina
0 Pat Donnellson– Huesee, Nanney
0 Casey McMahon– Jame, Kathy
0 Taylor Andrews– Vang, Hob
0 JA Curley– J-Son, Rachel
0 Voters:
0 Toua, Jasmine, Sunny, Brittany, Dorian (R)
Chi Nou, Evin, Douachee, Kong, Sabrina (D)
HW: Complete the Handouts for Debate Prep
Debate
0 Each candidate gets to give a 30 second intro
0 The national town hall meeting format will feature
audience questions. Each candidate must be asked 2
questions.
0 Candidates will be limited to 1 minutes (speaking)
0 Each candidate can give a 30 second closing
0 After the meeting, we will hold primary elections.
0What sets you apart from the
other Democratic/ Republican
candidates?
Primary Elections
0 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)
Choosing a VP…
0 Candidates who won your primaries, choose a VP.
0 (You might want to keep in mind who got the most
votes other than you in your party…)
Debrief
0 Audience: Was this a good way to learn about
candidates?
0 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?
0 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?
Interest Group Meet & Greet
0 Goal: Interest groups will try to get influence by
giving power tokens to candidates who promise to do
something for the interest group.
0 Only 1 candidate will win the election… You might
want to support multiple candidates.
To Do:
0 Give a quick speech about WHO you are and WHAT
you stand for (Interest groups)
0 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)
0 If candidates accept Power Tokens or endorsements
from an interest group whose cause they could not
realistically support, candidates will be penalized
Debrief
0 Which candidate did the best? Why do you think
interest groups were more likely to support that
candidate?
0 What is the relationship between candidates and
interest groups?
0 How might this relationship be beneficial for
democracy? How might it be harmful?
Presidential Election
0 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)
0 Citizens: Get into your assigned state and decide
Which issues should are most important to your state?
0 Nominees: Decide which states you should focus on and
why.
0 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.