Political
Parties and
Campaigns
Background
 Party—ongoing
coalition of interests
joined together in an effort to get its
candidates for office elected under a
common label
 Party-centered politics v. candidatecentered
History
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Washington farewell address: baneful effects
of parties
Madison: Federalist 10—factions
Originate in battle between Jefferson and
Hamilton
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Jefferson: Republicans
Hamilton: Federalists
Late 1820s, Republicans battle each other
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Andrew Jackson believes in ordinary people
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Democratic Republicans…become Democrats
More History
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Jackson believed in grassroots
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At peak de Tocqueville said “People reign in the
American political world as the Deity does in the
universe”
Whigs emerge as a threat
Catchall party
 Falls apart in 1850s
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Slavery splits Democrats and Whigs
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Republicans rise
Abraham Lincoln
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Stephen Douglas v. John Breckinridge
Realignments
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Disruption of existing political order because
of the emergence of one or more unusually
powerful and divisive issues
Election contest in which the voters shift their
support strongly in favor of one party
A major change in policy brought about
through the action of the stronger party
An enduring change in the party coalitions,
which works to the lasting advantage of the
dominant party
Realignments
 We’ve
had three since the 1850s
 1) Civil War
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 2)
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 3)
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Republicans replace Democrats as majority
1896
Depression—people blame Cleveland (D)
Republicans gain in MW and NE
Great Depression
Blame Hoover
Parties and the Vote
 Split
ticket voting
 Prospective
 Retrospective
Systems
 SMDP

Candidate with plurality in district wins
 Proportional

representation
Multi-party systems
Politics and Coalitions in the
Two-Party System
 Seeking

Power rests with moderates
 Party

the center
coalitions
Two parties means BIG coalitions
Third Parties
 Promote
policies
 Reform party
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Progressive
 Single-issue
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Prohibition Party
 Ideological

parties
Socialist Workers Party
 Factional
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parties
parties
Bull Moose
Party Organizations
 Nomination
to office
 Primary elections

Closed, open, blanket
 Primaries
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hinder strong parties
No patronage
Party to individuals
 U.S.
parties are loose associations of
national, state, and local organizations
Local Party
 Registration
drives
 Send mailings
 GOTV
 Concentrate on local races
State Party
 Central
committee
 Chairperson
 Fundraising and voter registration
National Party
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RNC and DNC
National chairperson
Raising and spending money
DCCC, NRCC, DSCC, NRSC
Hard money—What party gives and what you get
from individual contributors and interest groups
(hard cap)
Loophole—allows parties to raise and spend if not
channeled directly to candidate (Soft money)
BCRA—bans soft money
527 groups
Hydraulic Theory
Candidate-Centered
Campaign
 Service
relationship
 The money chase

$20,000 per week to make what you need
for Senate race
 Hired
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
guns
Consultants, pollsters, media producers,
fundraising, GOTV specialists, opposition
research
Packaging
The Battles
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Air War
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Ground War
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TV
Communicate directly
Rapid response
Debates
Get swing voters
More difficult to switch sides
Web War
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Email is cheaper
YouTube is cheaper
Targeted medium
Advantages and
Disadvantages
 Can
infuse new blood
 More open for newcomers
 Flexibility
 Encourage national officeholders to
remember the locals
 Degenerate into mud-slinging
 Weaken accountability
Thursday
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Thomas Frank's What's the Matter with Kansas? asserts that the
Republican Party has forged a new "dominant political coalition"
by attracting working-class white voters on the basis of "class
animus" and "cultural wedge issues like guns and abortion." Larry
Bartels's analysis confirms that white voters without college degrees
have become significantly less Democratic for different reasons.
Why?
If nonvoters actually came out to vote in an election, would this
change in the voting electorate be enough to make substantive
changes in elections?
Before the widespread use of the survey in American political
science, scholars considered American voters to be well informed
on elections, policies, and other areas of politics. Once they began
asking Americans questions about politics in the 1950s, they were
shocked to discover that levels of political knowledge were low,
and that Americans used cognitive shortcuts—such as party
identification—to help determine the groups and policies that they
would support. Is that good or bad?