ChAPTER EighT • CAmPAigns AnD ElECTions 183
Caucus System
A meeting of party
members to select
candidates and propose
policies.
Front-Runner
The presidential candidate
who appears to be ahead
at a given time in the
primary season.
Front-Loading
The practice of moving
presidential primary
elections to the early
part of the campaign to
maximize the impact of
these primaries on the
nomination.The two candidates receiving the most votes, regardless of party, then move on to the
general election. Following the abolition of the blanket primary, the state of Washington
adopted this system. In 2008, the Court upheld the new plan.^10 In 2010, Californians
voted to use the system beginning in 2012.Conventions and Caucuses. In 2012, sixteen states relied at least in part on the caucus
system for choosing delegates to the Republican and Democratic national conventions.
Strictly speaking, the caucus system is a caucus/convention system. In North Dakota, for
example, local citizens gather in party meetings, called caucuses, at the precinct level. They
choose delegates to district conventions. The district conventions elect delegates to the
state convention, and the state convention actually chooses the delegates to the national
convention. The national delegates, however, are pledged to reflect the presidential pref-
erences that voters expressed at the caucus level.Front-loading the Primaries
As soon as potential presidential candidates realized that winning as many primary elec-
tions as possible guaranteed them the party’s nomination for president, their tactics
changed dramatically. Candidates concentrated on building organizations in states that
held early, important primary elections. By the 1970s, candidates recognized that the win-
ner of an early contest, such as the Iowa caucuses or the New Hampshire primary election
(both now held in January), would instantly become seen as the front-runner, increasing
the candidate’s media exposure and escalating the pace of contributions to his or her
campaign.The Rush to Be First. The state political parties began to see that early primaries had
a much greater effect on the outcome of the presidential contest than did later ones.
Accordingly, in every successive presidential election, more and more states moved their
primaries into the first months of the year, a process known as front-loading the prima-
ries. One result was a series of “Super Tuesdays,” when multiple states held simultaneous
primaries. In 2008, twenty-four states held their primaries or caucuses on February 5,
making it the largest Super Tuesday ever. So many states were in play on February 5 that
it was impossible for the candidates to campaign strongly in all of them. Rather than win-
ning more attention, many Super Tuesday states found that they were ignored. Because
the Democratic race was not decided until the very end of the process in June 2008, the
later Democratic primaries, such as those in Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania,
and Texas, were hotly contested.
Front-loading, in short, had become counterproductive. As a result, in 2012 Super
Tuesday was held on March 6, a month later than in 2008. Ten states participated instead
of twenty-four.The national Parties seek to Regain Control. The process of front-loading the pri-
maries alarmed many observers, who feared that a front-runner might wrap up the nomi-
nation before voters were able to make a thorough assessment of the candidates. In the
many months between the early primaries and the general election, the voters might
come to regret their decision.
In response, the national Democratic and Republican parties took steps to regain
control of the primary schedule in 2012. Such steps included a requirement that states
could not hold primaries or caucuses before a specified date. States would need special- Washington State Grange v. Washington State Republican Party, 552 U.S. 442 (2008).
Social Media
in Politics
For politics, Facebook,
Twitter, and YouTube may
be the most important
social media sites, but
there are many others.
Pinterest is an online
pinboard that is wildly
popular with women.
Instagram lets you share
smartphone photos.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).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.