Reference no: EM133291314

Question: Presidential elections have two official campaign phases: the nomination campaign, in which candidates try to secure the nomination of their political party, and the general election campaign, in which successful nominees compete for the presidency. The general trend in modern campaigns has been one of increasing openness, taking some of the power away from party elites and placing it in the hands of party activists and average Americans. However, party leaders still have more power to shape the nomination than the average American voter.

Before the Official Campaign
Presidential hopefuls lay the foundations for their bids years before the official process begins. They begin raising money and contacting party officials, trying to win the favor of the party elite. An exploratory committee may attract media coverage, and it allows a potential candidate to test the waters by traveling around the country, conducting public opinion polls, and making outreach phone calls to attract potential voters. If a candidate decides to run, his or her campaign becomes official.

Part A: Campaigning

Step 1: Open vs Closed Primaries
The Nomination Process at the beginning of congressional and presidential campaigns, declared candidates compete with others in their own party for that party's nomination. Most states hold primary elections, in which a state's voters choose delegates who support a particular presidential candidate. Some states hold open primaries, in which all eligible voters may vote in a party's primary election, regardless of that voter's partisan affiliation. Others hold closed primaries, in which only those voters who have registered with a political party can participate. While open primaries encourage undecided and independent voters to participate in choosing a party's nominee, they also allow the possibility that some voters will cast their votes to sabotage a candidate from the opposing party if they see the candidate as a threat to their own preferred candidate. Critics of open primaries contend that only voters registered to a party should have a say in selecting the party's nominee. It is not fair to allow non affiliated voters to diminish the voices of the party faithful. Closed primaries produce candidates who are in line with what that party's voters want. Advocates of open primaries say they help make elections more competitive by taking power away from senior party officials, who serve as gatekeepers, favoring some candidates over others. "The problem [with politics] isn't the money. The problem is the parties themselves," said John Opdycke, the president of Open Primaries, a group seeking to implement the process nationwide. Those favoring open primaries believe closed primaries incentivize candidates to appeal to the party's extremists, leading to nominees who are too far outside the political mainstream.

Step 2: Primaries vs Caucuses
Some states hold caucuses, meetings of eligible voters to select delegates. Caucuses differ from primaries because the voting is done in public instead of by secret ballot. At their most basic level, the caucuses are organized by voting precincts within cities and towns. At a typical precinct caucus meeting, supporters from various campaigns give speeches about why they back their candidate. Then participants break into groups depending on which candidate they support, or they indicate that they are still undecided. Before any delegates can be elected, a group has to meet a certain threshold number of votes. Groups try to persuade people to join them to increase their size. Because caucuses have complex rules and are time-consuming, they tend to draw fewer participants than primaries, typically attracting those who are more committed to a candidate. In February 2016, more than 186,000 Republicans and 171,000 Democrats took part in the Iowa caucus, a turnout rate of just under 16 percent of eligible voters. Why do some states have primaries while others have caucuses? If a state holds a primary, the state government has to finance it. In return, political parties must abide by state laws governing the process, such as the date of the primary and who can participate. Holding a caucus gives political parties more flexibility and power over the nomination process.

Step 3: Winning Delegates
The two major political parties have differed in how they award delegates. The rules continue to change. The Republican Party awards delegates either to the winning candidate statewide or, more commonly, by splitting delegates between winners in the state overall and winners in individual congressional districts. The Democratic Party has tended to award delegates through a proportional system in which delegates are divided based upon total vote share. However, the elite within the Democratic Party is given special representation. Superdelegates are members of the Democratic Party, usually elected officials or party activists, who can support any candidate they choose, regardless of the outcome of the primaries or caucuses in their state. They account for 15 percent of the total number of delegates. Unlike delegates selected in primaries and caucuses, they are not pledged to vote for a particular candidate. The Republicans don't have superdelegates but they designate three delegates from each state based upon their positions within the state party who are obliged to vote for their states popular vote winner.
There are risks with either approach to awarding delegates. Awarding delegates through the proportional system used by the Democratic Party tends to push back the date when a candidate wins enough delegates to secure the nomination; awarding them based on the winner-take-all system used by the Republican Party tends to speed it up. A quicker conclusion to a nomination season benefits a party by allowing it to focus its efforts on the general election. On the other hand, a rapid conclusion to the process may end the nomination process before some potentially viable candidates have a chance to gain traction with voters.

Step 4: National Conventions
Political parties generally hold national conventions at which a group of delegates collectively decide upon which candidate they will run for the presidency. While not as important as they were in the past, conventions still play a key role in each party's election strategy. First, since the TV networks cover the conventions, they provide parties with free prime-time coverage to showcase their candidate. This part of any convention is heavily scripted to make it look as "spontaneous" as possible. It all leads to the candidate's acceptance speech on the final night of the convention, which is traditionally when the candidate makes his or her first public appearance at the convention. But the party also uses the convention to decide on a platform for the election. While candidates are not obliged to follow these platforms, contentious debate over a controversial plank can hurt or help a candidate during the general election.