NOMINATION PROCESS

Link to Invisible Primary
Inmany respects theinvisible primaryisan extension of the nomination process on the frontendCandidatesmust develop and maintain credibility, stature and legitimacy as serious presidential candidates long before the actual official process gets started
NOMINATIONPROCESS“each party getting their best candidate”
BEST DEMOCRAT & BEST REPUBLICAN
Frontloading and Nomination Process
Statescreated a competitive scramble to move primaries and caucuses forward in the election year in order to raise their profiles and maximize impact on the determination of the partynomineesNationalparties had to intervene in the process in 2008 to maintain the integrity of Iowa and New Hampshire as the first two states to hold officialeventsDelegates penalized-deducted(R) or stripped(D)—Florida—Hillary petitioned against penalizing delegatesManyeven thought that official events would be forced into late 2007 as Iowa and New Hampshire vowed to keep their custom of being first
NOMINATIONPROCESS“each party getting their best candidate”
BEST DEMOCRAT & BEST REPUBLICAN
“Party Business”
Fieldof candidates in each party is narrowed to a singlenomineeMuchof the narrowing is done through naturalattritionCandidates losemomentum and eventually run out of money and other resources that are necessary for generating support andvotesSomeone will eventually receive a mjority of the total delegates, amking them the nominee
NOMINATIONPROCESS“each party getting their best candidate”
BEST DEMOCRAT & BEST REPUBLICAN
Critical Resources
Money, paid professional staffers, pollsters, phone banks, get out the vote resources, field managers, volunteer coordinators, fundraising, Internet and technology support, media managers, advertising and many others
NOMINATIONPROCESS“each party getting their best candidate”
BEST DEMOCRAT & BEST REPUBLICAN
The Party Nominee
Whateverthe rule, event, strategy, mechanic, etc the one and only objective is to determine the party’s bestcandidateProductof the nomination process is the bestcandidateBestnavigates and survives the varied rules, calendars, procedures, finishing on top is the best candidate of the party and moves on to face the opposition survivor in the November general election
NOMINATIONPROCESS“each party getting their best candidate”
BEST DEMOCRAT & BEST REPUBLICAN
How to Get the Party Nominee
Complex, sophisticated, cummulative and somewhat confusing rules processes and mechanics that are different for each party and vary from state to state characterize thesystemThereare as many rules as there arestatesTheserules, processes and mechanics result from a combination of state law and party policies
NOMINATION PROCESS
BEST DEMOCRAT & BEST REPUBLICAN
NOMINATIONPROCESS“each party getting their best candidate”
IOWA & NEW HAMPSHIRE
the nomination process officially begins in January with theIowa caucusand theNew Hampshireprimarytwovery different states, in two different parts of the country determining delegates in two very differentwaysgainor lose momentum with the early showings and therein lies the secret and importance of IA andNHtheserelatively insignificant states in general election politics are crucial to capturing the nomination and in many people’s minds have a disproportionate amount of influence on the presidential electionsystemmostcandidates wont be around for a significant majority of the primary events
NOMINATION PROCESS
BEST DEMOCRAT & BEST REPUBLICAN
NOMINATIONPROCESS“each party getting their best candidate”
NOMINATION CURRENCY
all fifty states and US territories will hold either a primary or caucus between the months of January and June to determine delegates that eventually cast a vote at the party’s national convention during thesummerdelegatesare the currency in the nomination phase
NOMINATION PROCESS
BEST DEMOCRAT & BEST REPUBLICAN
NOMINATIONPROCESS“each party getting their best candidate”
MONEY IS CRITICAL
the primary objective of each campaign is to gain support and votes from week to week and state tostateasuccessful candidate must prove the ability to persevere from week to week and capture votes in totally different parts of the country with a diverse range ofvoterscampaignssend in as many resources (money, staff etc) as early as possible in as many states as theycanthemore money, the moreresources inmore states= more delegatesthewinning campaign must get a majority of the totaldelegatecount of roughly 4000 Democrats or 1000republicansmostcampaignsdon’t have resources—must pick crucial states to gain momentum---this hampers their ablility to mass delegate votesthecandidates with ample resources have the ability to pick up delegates every where----MONEY IS CRITICAL
NOMINATION PROCESS
BEST DEMOCRAT & BEST REPUBLICAN
NOMINATIONPROCESS“each party getting their best candidate”
DELEGATE SELECTION
states either hold aprimaryorcaucusto determinedelegates---both Republicans and Democrats in Georgia determine delegates with a primaryeachstate has a delegate total determined by the national partylinkedto the previous presidential electionresultsthebetter a party does in the presidential election one year the more delegates they are rewarded in the next nominationcycleIn2008, 4040 total Democratic delegates were selected to attend the convention in Denver, 103 were from GAIn 2008,2345total Republicandelegateswere selected to attend the convention in Minneapolis,72were from GA
NOMINATION PROCESS
BEST DEMOCRAT & BEST REPUBLICAN
NOMINATIONPROCESS“each party getting their best candidate”
PRIMARY FUNDAMENTALS
Partyelection---the states open up the election polls and average citizens go andvotedelegatetotals are linked to the people that actually go to the polls and vote for acandidateDemocratsandRepublicanshave different rules as to delegate determination linked to primaryvoteDemocrats typicallyhave a proportional system and Republicans have more winner take all contests
NOMINATION PROCESS
BEST DEMOCRAT & BEST REPUBLICAN
NOMINATIONPROCESS“each party getting their best candidate”
FUNDAMENTALS OF THE CAUCUS
Partymeeting---participants in a caucus must attend a scheduled meeting of the party withthemain agenda itembeing theselection of delegates to a convention to be heldlateraseries of conventions eventually determines delegates that will attend the national convention where the nominee isselectedthisis a pyrimidalprocessdelegatesare detemined by the actual number of people that physically show up in support of acandidate
NOMINATION PROCESS
BEST DEMOCRAT & BEST REPUBLICAN
NOMINATIONPROCESS“each party getting their best candidate”
PRIMARY/CAUCUS COMBOthe states have this discretion
In a few cases the flexibility of the states to create different rules allows for a combination of thetwoTexasDemocrats in 2008 had a confusing system where a percentage of the delegates were determined by a primary vote by day and the rest were determined by caucus participation atnightRemember that each party in each state determines its own rules
NOMINATION PROCESS
BEST DEMOCRAT & BEST REPUBLICAN
NOMINATIONPROCESS“each party getting their best candidate”
PARTY REGULARS
Party regulars (activists) are the fundamental participants in the nominationprocessTheyare people that are immersed in the business of a political party---these are not you averageAmericansManyare professional politicians or electedofficeholdersManyhave other links or connections to politics or work asstaffersTheyraise money, work in campaigns, write fundraising checks, develop vision and policy of the party, attend meetings,etcTheyare also very instrumental in developing the rules, procedures and mechanics of the nominationprocessTheyare constantly looking for better more efficient and effective ways of advocating part policy and candidates
NOMINATION PROCESS
BEST DEMOCRAT & BEST REPUBLICAN
NOMINATIONPROCESS“each party getting their best candidate”
PARTY CONVENTIONS
Eventuallycandidate resources and support manifest itself in the number of delegates that attend the national convention supporting a particular candidate (link to voters in a primary election and supporters at a partycaucus)Delegatesto the convention are bound by party rules to their candidate based on the results of caucus andprimaryModernpolitical history has always seen a winner determined and declared before the convention and the actual nomination of the President and Vice president is a formality and is usually done unanimously as opponentsturntheirdelegatesloose to support thevictorthiswas the case even in 2008 with the close primary battle between Obama andHillaryConventionwhere the noiminee hasn’t been decided and delegates are free to be solicited by others is called a brokeredconventiondelegatevotes are bought and sold and deals are made to determine who becomes the nominee
NOMINATION PROCESS
BEST DEMOCRAT & BEST REPUBLICAN
NOMINATIONPROCESS“each party getting their best candidate”
PARTY CONVENTION SITES
Convention site selection is a politicaldecisionTypicallythe party is going toselecta city/state that they feel is in play and will be critical to winning the generalelectionConventionstherefore are generally held in battlegroundstates2008found the Democrats in Denver and the Republicans in Minneapolis
NOMINATION PROCESS
BEST DEMOCRAT & BEST REPUBLICAN
NOMINATIONPROCESS“each party getting their best candidate”
PARTY CONVENTIONSWhat They Accomplish?
Conventions lately have had more of a pep rally atmosphere where the party puts its best foot forward and really plays to the televisioncamerasmanyfeel the importance and function of the party convention has outlived its usefulness---there are two important elements :Two delegate tasks:officialnomination of Prsident and VPdevelopmentof party platform---official issue positions ofpartyPollbumptheparty and candidate typically get an 8-10 point bump in the polls following theconventiontheparty in power always holds there convention last and gets the finalbumpmostfeel these bumps are smoothed out and the polls are more accurate around Labor Day
NOMINATION PROCESS
BEST DEMOCRAT & BEST REPUBLICAN
NOMINATIONPROCESS“each party getting their best candidate”