How to Become an Elected Politician

A)    1st Step – Get nominated – How?

1)    Self nominated (it started in colonial times and is still occurring today)a)    What is it? – when a person running for office just announces they are running b)   It is most often the choice of getting nominated by independent candidates who

are not associated with either the major parties or big third parties (for example: Ross Perot in 1992)

2)    the petition method (started off in the colonial days, still used today)

a)   What is it? – person announces s/he wants to run and must have enough signatures to be put on the ballot

b)   This method is not just used by 3rd parties to get on the ballot– some states require all candidates of any party to have enough signatures before being placed on the ballot (like mayor or sheriff)

c)    Its still a very popular method for selecting candidates for local area elections

3)    caucuses (1770s-1840s) a)   What is it? – private/secret meetings of

only top party leaders to choose candidates

b)   Its use was widely criticized – Why? c)    still used in very small towns in New

England

It wasn’t open to the people

4)    nominating conventions (1840s-1900s)

a) What is it? – people choose delegates who choose other delegates to represent the public’s views in choosing candidates

b) was popular until it became corrupted in the larger cities by political bosses (like Boss Tweed in New York) who decided they only they should select who gets to be delegates and candidates

c)  now conventions are used as the next step after…

5)    primary electionsa) What is it? 1)    when party officials

select a few people to run for office for a specific party

2)    people vote on the best candidate and the winner with the most votes wins the party’s nomination

3)    very popular today (in fact in some states its required by law)

4)    2 types of primaries

a) closed

1) only members of that specific party can vote on candidates

2) voters’ party affiliation is verified in voter registration books

3) if you said you were a member of a different party or said you were an independent in the last election, you can’t vote

4) for ex: Republican closed primary – only registered Republicans can vote

in an open primary meanwhile…

1)    any voter from any party can participate

2)    they do not have to state what their party is to get a ballot

3)    however they can only vote for one party at a time

then there’s the “wide open primary”

1)    voters are given ballots with all the contenders of all parties

2)    voters then choose whatever party (or parties) they want

3)    the Supreme Court in 2000, declared wide open primaries illegal because they were too confusing (because the ballots were so big – no one knew who they were voting for)

d) What type of primary does VA usually have?

Open

5)    primaries are state run

a)   state decides when it will be

b)   state provides ballots and list of eligible voters

c)    provides locations and counters/election officials

also determines what is needed to win:1) do you need just one more vote than the other guy?2) do you need a specific majority?3) in some cases if there is not a clear majority you may have a runoff

primary election between the top two finishers

B)    Nominating the Big Cheese – How to get nominated for President of the US?

1)    Who participates?

a)   all 50 states

b)   all US territories

1)    Guam

2)    Puerto Rico

3)    Virgin Islands

4)    American Samoa

5)    Washington DC

   History

a)    from 1800 to 1824 – Congressional leaders from each party met together in secret to decide on the party’s ticket

b)   What president said this must come to an end?

Andrew Jackson

 c) Starting in 1831…a small 3rd party, the Anti-Masons, came up with the idea for a national convention to select candidates which became common practice until …

d)   1916 when the use of primaries also became popular

e)    finally by the 1970s minorities and women were allowed to participate in the process

3)    the Present – specifics may differ from state to state but…

a)   candidates compete in primaries held from February to June b)   they are held in each state 1)   the states themselves set the rules for how and when they will have their primaries2)   which state usually goes first (since 1940)? New Hampshire!3)   some decide to all go together for example, several southern states all have the same day

for their primary – this is called “Super Tuesday”

c)    if the candidate wins the primary in the state(s) s/he takes some or all of the delegates to back them in the national convention

d)   the # of delegates each state has usually equals the total number of representatives they have (House + Senate)

e)    whoever wins a majority # of the delegates wins the nomination at the convention

    criticisms of this method:

1)   they take too long!2)   The candidates become too wrapped up in their image and less about the issues that

should be said at the convention3)   A lot of money and time is spent squabbling between candidates of the same party

4) After the primaries are held, the national convention occurs…

1)   the convention is held in the major city of an important state is unsure which party it will back in the elections

a)    the Democrats held their convention in Charlotte NC

b)   the Republicans held their convention in Tampa FL

c)    the idea being that if you have a successful convention people will join the party and convince the state to go with the party

2)during the first day of the convention, the best and the brightest are invited to speak (especially during the keynote address – the opening speech)

3)   during the speeches, the history, the present successes of the party, and the future successes of the party (?) are brought out

  THERE’S ALSO LOTS OF MEDIA ATTENTION!!!

5)   On the 2nd day committees are appointed

a)   to work out the rules of the party (done by the Rules Committee)

b)   to make sure delegates are fair and representative (that’s done by the Credentials Committee)

c)    assigns a chairperson for the convention (which is done by the National Committee)

d)  Finally the platform committee assigns a platform for the party

1)    What’s a platform? – “principles, beliefs, and positions on issues”

2)    ex: trade, foreign issues, issues at home

3)    Can you tell the difference between the Republican and Democratic platforms in 2012?

4)    Is it easy to create a platform? “You got to give a little … take a little…” (if you don’t compromise with people in your party you can divide the party)

e) Finally on the 3rd day, you nominate the candidate1)    candidates give last minute nomination speeches to sway delegates 2)     Why make the speeches – don’t all the delegates know how they are going to vote?a)    Not exactly, not all votes are definite – committee rulings can change results of the statesb)    After the credential committee meets, conventions then have roll call where states report

their final votes

3)     candidates must have a majority to win5)     no majority – delegates talk to county and state committees to compromise 6)     first the president is voted on (on the 3rd day) and then vice president (on the 4th

day)7)     the vice presidential candidate who is chosen usually has different views and is

from a different part of the country than the presidential candidate – Why?

8)    both of the candidates (presidential and vice-presidential) give final speeches to keep the party together until election day