Campaigns and the Electoral Process

AP UNIT 3 (Continued)

Running for Office

• Two separate elections occur on the road to the presidency:1.) Election to earn your party’s nomination (official

party endorsement of a candidate)• Members of the same party compete to be the

party’s ONE nominee• Decided at party national conventions after

states have their primaries or caucuses

2.) General election --> two party candidates (Democrat vs. Republican) compete for the presidency (+ third parties)

Race for the White House

STEP ONE: The Invisible Primary– Potential candidates try to get support of

high party officials, fundraising for campaigns, etc.

– Candidates’ first chance at creating an positive image for themselves (as competent, intelligent, experienced, etc.)

– Start “testing the waters” to see how many people might support them as a candidate

STEP TWO: Primaries and Caucuses

• primary - statewide election in which voters express their preference for a presidential candidate from a certain party– Closed primary - only registered members of a

political party can vote– Open primary - voters choose one party to vote

for on the ballot (declaration)– Blanket primary - anyone can vote regardless

of party affiliation (no declaration) - can vote for different parties for different offices on the same ballot (not organized by party)

• caucus – (instead of a primary) local elections in townhall settings where voters choose their preferred presidential candidate (added caucuses up across a state)

• Most states have primaries, but some have caucuses

Delegates

• Each national political party chooses the # of delegates a state gets

• These delegates pledge their vote for a certain candidate at the national party convention

• candidate that wins the req. # of delegates, gets the party’s nominationEx: (2016) Repub. --> win 1,237 out of 2,472

delegates to get the nomination

(2016) Dem. --> win 2,382 out of 4,763

Winning Delegates

• Determined by how a state votes in its primary or caucus

• Winner-take-all - the candidate with the most votes gets ALL the state’s delegates

OR• Proportional - delegates are divided out by %

of the vote a candidate gets– Ex: candidate gets 20% of vote --> gets 20% of

delegates

Election 2016 in TN

• TN 2016 GOP Delegate Info• TN 2016 Dem. Delegate Info

The National Convention

• Each party has a national convention where its delegates meet to choose the official party candidate– Delegates vote for their promised candidate

unless they’re “released”– superdelegate - national party leaders who

automatically get a spot at the convention (are not pledged delegates – can vote how they wish)

• adoption of party platform - political party’s statement of its beliefs, goals, and policies for the next 4 years

• frontloading – when states move their primary/caucus dates earlier to be closer to New Hampshire (1st primary state) or Iowa (1st caucus state) on the calendar – to get more media attention and influence

in the election

Campaign Financing

• Two ways of contributing to a candidate:

1.) campaign contributions - donations made directly to a candidate or party

2.) independent expenditures - spending by political groups of people who support a candidate’s campaign, but are not affiliated with it (ex: Super PACs)

The FEC

• Federal Election Commission - bipartisan committee that regulates and enforces laws on campaign financing – created by the Federal Election Campaign

Act of 1974 (to limit and reveal financing)– has 6 members (3 Rep., 3 Dem.)– campaign contributions by individuals and

groups must be reported to FEC

1.) Campaign Contributions

• Individuals --> up to $2,700 to a candidate (per election), $5,000 to a PAC (per year)

• Political Action Committees (PACs)- political groups who gather money from individuals and donate it to the candidate they support --> can give up to $5,000 to a candidate per election

• hard money - money contributed directly to a candidate (with these limits)

• 2015-2016 FEC Contribution Limits

Loopholes

• soft money - money contributions to a political party instead of a candidate (no limit)– were used for “party-building” activities

which included using the money to endorse candidates (NOT ALLOWED)

• banned by McCain-Feingold Act of 2002 (AKA Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act)

2.) Independent Expenditures

• 527 groups - independent political groups that can give unlimited donations because they are not specifically endorsing a particular candidate– report contributions to IRS, not FEC– contribution info is public

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission

(2008)• Struck down part of McCain-Feingold Act that

prohibited corporations from spending money in electioneering as violation of free speech

• Importance of the Ruling: allows corporations and unions to spend as much money as they want to promote their political views (CANNOT directly endorse a candidate though)

• 501(c) groups - political groups that can collect unlimited donations and don’t report donation information to public– these donations = “dark money”– report to IRS, not FEC– can’t spend more than half their money on

political activities

• SuperPACs - independent expenditure-only PACs that can raise and spend unlimited money to advocate for/against a candidate– forbidden from contributing directly to a

candidate (reg. PACs can do this)– can apply to be 527 or 501(c) groups

depending if they disclose their donations

Election Day

• 1st Tuesday of November (after the first Monday of the month) on even years– Ex: Nov. 3, 2020 is the next presidential election

• straight-ticket voting - voting for all the candidates from the same party on the ballot

• split-ticket voting - voting for candidates from different parties on the ballot

The Electoral College

• Occurs after the Nov. general election• Each state has a given # of electoral

votes: the # of senators + # of representatives that state has in U.S. Congress– Ex: TN has 9 representatives + 2 senators

= 11 electoral votes

• Voters vote indirectly for the president (are actually voting for electors who have promised to vote for one of the presidential candidates)

• Whichever candidate gets the majority of the state’s popular vote gets all that state’s electors (except Maine and Nebraska)– Ex: Trump gets 2 million votes, Clinton gets 1

million votes in TN --> Trump wins TN’s 11 electoral votes

• A candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win the presidency (out of 538)

• If no one candidate wins the majority of the electors, the House of Representatives chooses the next president (each state gets one vote)

Viewpoints on the Electoral College

PRO-EC- gives even the smallest

states influence in the election

- puts an extra barrier between the people and the choosing of the president (protects against “mob rule”)

- Organizes system of voting better than straight popular vote

ANTI-EC- a candidate can lose

the popular vote and still win by electoral votes

- People don’t directly vote for president

- Electors don’t have to vote the way their state tells them to

- Unnecessarily complicated