ChAPTER EighT • CAmPAigns AnD ElECTions 181
Superdelegate
A party leader or elected
official who is given the
right to vote at the party’s
national convention.
Superdelegates are not
elected at the state level.
Direct Primary
A primary election in
which voters decide party
nominations by voting
directly for candidates.
Indirect Primary
A primary election in
which voters choose
convention delegates, and
the delegates determine
the party’s candidate in
the general election.Primary elections were first organized for state officials in 1904 in Wisconsin. The
purpose of the primary was to open the nomination process to ordinary party members
and to weaken the influence of party bosses. Until 1968, however, there were fewer than
twenty primary elections for the presidency. They were often “beauty contests,” in which
the candidates competed for popular votes but the results did not control the selection
of delegates to the national convention. National conventions were meetings of the party
elite— legislators, mayors, county chairpersons, and loyal party workers—who were mostly
appointed to their delegations. The leaders of large blocs of delegates could direct their
delegates to support a favorite candidate.Reforming the Primaries
In recent decades, the character of the primary process and the makeup of the national
convention have changed dramatically. The public, rather than party elites, now generally
controls the nomination process. After the disruptive riots outside the doors of the 1968
Democratic convention in Chicago, many party leaders pushed for serious reforms of the
convention system.
The Democratic National Committee appointed a special commission to study the
problems of the primary system. During the next several years, the group—called the
McGovern-Fraser Commission—formulated new rules for delegate selection that had to
be followed by state Democratic parties beginning in 1972.
The reforms instituted by the Democratic Party, which were mostly imitated by the
Republicans, revolutionized the nomination process for the presidency. The most impor-
tant changes require that a majority of the convention delegates be elected by the voters
in primary elections, in caucuses held by local parties, or at state conventions. Delegates
are normally pledged to a particular candidate, although the pledge is not always formally
binding at the convention. The delegation from each state must also include a proportion
of women, younger party members, and representatives of the minority groups within the
party. At first, almost no special privileges were given to party leaders and elected party
officials, such as senators and governors. In 1984, however, many of these individuals
returned to the Democratic convention as superdelegates.Primaries and Caucuses
Various types of primaries are used by the states. One notable difference is between pro-
portional and winner-take-all primaries. Another important consideration is whether inde-
pendent voters can take part in a primary. Some states also use caucuses and conventions
to choose candidates for various offices.Direct and indirect Primaries. A direct primary is one in which voters decide party
nominations by voting directly for candidates. In an indirect primary, voters instead
choose convention delegates, and the delegates determine the party’s candidate in the
general election. Delegates may be pledged to a particular candidate. Indirect primaries
are used almost exclusively in presidential elections. Most candidates in state and local
elections are chosen by direct primaries.Proportional and winner-Take-All Primaries. Most primaries are winner-take-all.
Proportional primaries are used mostly to elect delegates to the national conventions of
the two major parties—delegates who are pledged to one or another candidate for presi-
dent. Under the proportional system, if one candidate for president wins 40 percent of
the vote in a primary, that candidate receives about 40 percent of the pledged delegates.Copyright 2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
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