United States presidential primary

The series of presidential primary elections is one of the first steps in the process of electing a President of the United States of America. The primary elections provide a method for U.S. political parties to nominate and unite behind one popularly chosen candidate for the Presidency.

Process

The Democratic and Republican parties each officially nominate their candidate for President at their national convention the summer before the election. When voters cast ballots for a candidate in a presidential caucus or primary, they are actually voting to award delegates "bound" to that candidate in the national convention. The rules for the awarding of delegates vary from party to party, state to state, and election to election. Not all delegates are selected by primaries and caucuses—both major parties have provisions for "superdelegates" chosen outside the primary system.

If no candidate wins a majority of delegates during the primary season, the nominee is chosen by the convention. This method of nominee selection has not occurred since 1976, when incumbent president Gerald Ford narrowly defeated Ronald Reagan.

Calendar

Campaigning for president often begins a year or more before the New Hampshire primary, almost two years before the general election.

The first binding event, that is, in which a candidate can secure convention delegates, is traditionally the Iowa caucus, held in January of the presidential election year. It is followed by the New Hampshire primary two weeks later, by tradition and law always the first primary. (In 2006 the Democrats are discussing changes in the sequence for 2008.)

Because these states are small, campaigning takes place on a much more personal scale. As a result, even a little-known, underfunded candidate can use "retail politics" to meet intimately with interested voters and perform better than expected. The Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary have produced a number of headline-making upsets in history:

Harry S. Truman ended his re-election bid in 1952 after losing the New Hampshire primary
Lyndon Baines Johnson dropped his 1968 reelection bid after performing far below expectations in the New Hampshire primary
Jimmy Carter, the little-known governor of Georgia, took a surprise win in 1976 and rode it to the presidency
Television commentator Pat Buchanan's strong showing in the 1992 and 1996 New Hampshire primaries highlighted the weakness of the future nominees, incumbent George H. W. Bush and Senator Bob Dole respectively, both of whom subsequently lost the general election
John McCain, a less known senator from Arizona, defeated party favorite George W. Bush in the New Hampshire primary in 2000, making it a close contest. (McCain lost the next primaries.)

Iowa and New Hampshire set the tone for the campaign—and allow an outsider to topple the favorite. In recent elections, the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary have garnered over half the national and international media attention paid to the entire selection process. New Hampshire jealously guards its first-in-the-nation status, (although it is being challenged in 2008).

After Iowa and New Hampshire, primaries and caucuses are held in the other states, Puerto Rico, insular areas, and the District of Columbia; the front runners attempt to solidify their status, while the others fight to become #2. Each party sets its own calendar and rules and in some cases actually administers the election; however, in order to reduce expenses and encourage turnout, the major parties' primaries are held the same day and may be consolidated with other state elections. The primary election itself is administered by local governments according to state law. In some cases, state law determines how delegates will be awarded and who may participate in the primary; where it does not, party rules prevail.

In recent years states have been holding early primaries to maximize their leverage. California moved its primary back to June in 2004, having moved it to March in 1996.

Types of primary

Franchise in a primary is governed by rules established by the state party, although the states may impose other regulations.

Nearly all states have a binding primary, in which the results of the election legally bind some or all of the delegates to vote for a particular candidate at the national convention. A handful of states practice a non-binding primary, which may select candidates to a state convention which then selects delegates, or which is a "beauty contest" to gauge voter sentiment unrelated to the selection of delegates by caucus or convention. Both parties have rules which designate superdelegates

In most states, only voters registered with a party may vote in that party's primary, known as a closed primary. In some states, a semi-closed primary is practiced, in which voters unaffiliated with a party (independents) may choose a party primary in which to vote. In an open primary, any voter may vote in any party's primary. In all of these systems, a voter may participate in only one primary; that is, a voter who casts a vote for a candidate standing for the Republican nomination for president cannot cast a vote for a candidate standing for the Democratic nomination, or vice versa. A few states once staged a blanket primary, in which voters could vote for one candidate in multiple primaries, but the practice was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 2000 case of California Democratic Party v. Jones as violating the freedom of assembly guaranteed by the First Amendment.

Most state parties observe a "winner-take-all" system in which the winner of the primary receives all of the state's delegates. This system is not without its critics, however, as the winner may have prevailed by only a slim margin. Since most states follow plurality voting, a candidate could receive a distinct minority of the vote, yet win a very large bloc of delegates in large states such as California. Some states, notably New Hampshire, now require delegates be awarded proportionally.

History

There is no provision for the role of political parties in the United States Constitution, but parties had developed by the early 19th century. At first, members of Congress would nominate a single candidate from their party to put before the Electoral College, but by 1830 the preferred mechanism for nomination was a national convention.

Delegates to the national convention were usually selected at state conventions whose own delegates were chosen by caucus. Thus, they soon became dominated by intrigue between political bosses who controlled delegates; the national convention was far from democratic or transparent. Progressive Era reformers looked to the primary election as a way to measure popular opinion of candidates, as opposed to the opinion of the bosses. In 1910, Oregon became the first state to establish a presidential preference primary in which the delegates to the National Convention were required to support the winner of the primary at the convention. By 1912, twelve states either selected delegates in primaries, used a preferential primary, or both. By 1920 there were 20 states with primaries, but some went back and from 1936 to 1968, 13 or 14 states used them. (Ware p 248]

The primary received its first major test in the 1912 election pitting incumbent President William Howard Taft against challengers Theodore Roosevelt and Robert La Follette. Roosevelt proved the most popular candidate, but as most primaries were non-binding "preference" shows, the Republican nomination went to Taft, who controlled the convention.

Seeking to boost voter turnout, New Hampshire simplified its ballot access laws in 1949. In the ensuing "beauty contest" of 1952, Dwight Eisenhower demonstrated his broad voter appeal by outpolling the favored Robert A. Taft, "Mr. Republican," and Estes Kefauver defeated incumbent President Harry S. Truman, leading him to abandon his campaign for a third term. The first-in-the-nation New Hampshire primary has since become a widely-observed test of candidates' viability.

The impetus for national adoption of the binding primary election was the chaotic 1968 Democratic National Convention. Vice President Hubert Humphrey II secured the nomination despite primary victories and other shows of support for Senator Eugene McCarthy, running against Humphrey on a strong anti-Vietnam War platform. After this, a Democratic National Committee-commissioned panel led by Senator George McGovern recommended all future delegates be selected by primary. The Republicans also adopted the primary nationally, in 1972.

Since nationalization of the primary system, states have tried to increase their influence in the nomination process. One tactic has been to create geographic blocs to encourage candidates to spend time in a region. Vermont and Massachusetts attempted to stage a joint New England primary on the first Tuesday of march, but New Hampshire refused to participate so it could retain its traditional place as the first primary. The first successful regional primary was Super Tuesday of March 8, 1988, in which nine Southern states united in the hope that the Democrats would select a moderate candidate in line with Southern interests.

Another trend is to stage earlier and earlier primaries, given impetus by Super Tuesday and the mid-1990s move (since repealed) of the California primary and its bloc of votes—the largest—from June to March. In order to retain its tradition as the first primary in the country (and adhere to a state law which requires it to be), New Hampshire's primary has moved back steadily, from early March to mid-January.

Criticisms

Representativeness

Great attention is paid to the results of the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary; however, critics point out that these states are not representative of the United States as a whole: they are overwhelmingly white, more rural, and wealthier than the national average, and neither is located in the fast-growing West or South.

In 2005, the primary commission of the Democratic National Committee began considering removing New Hampshire and Iowa from the top of the calendar. A revised system may take effect beginning in 2008; as of 2006, however, it has not received final approval. New Hampshire is fighting back by obliging candidates who want to campaign in the state to pledge to uphold that primary as the first one.

Front-loading and compression

States vie for earlier primaries in order to claim greater influence in the nomination process, since candidates can ignore primaries which fall after they have secured the nomination and would owe less to those states politically. As a result, rather than stretching from March to July, most primaries take place in a compressed time frame in February and March. National party leaders also have an interest in compressing the primary calendar, as it enables the party to reduce the change of a bruising internecine battle and to preserve resources for the general campaign.

In such a primary season, however, many primaries will fall on the same day, forcing candidates to choose where to spend their time and resources. Indeed, Super Tuesday was created deliberately to increase the influence of the South. When states cannot agree to coordinate primaries, however, attention flows to larger states with large numbers of delegates at the expense of smaller ones. Because the candidate's time is limited, paid advertising may play a greater role. Moreover, a compressed calendar limits the ability of lesser-known candidates to corral resources and raise their visibility among voters, especially when a better-known candidate enjoys the financial and institutional backing of the party establishment. Ironically, then, the parties' influence over the nomination primaries were intended to limit has grown again.

Reform proposals

There are several proposals of reforming the primary system. Some have called for a single nationwide primary to be held on one day. Others point out that requiring candidates to campaign in every state simultaneously would exacerbate the purported problem of campaigns being dominated by the candidates who raise the most money.

Alternative reform concepts such as the American Plan would return the presidential primary season to a more relaxed schedule. Fewer primaries in smaller states would allow grassroots campaigns to score early successes and pick up steam. With this idea in mind, a commission empaneled by the Republican National Committee recommended the Delaware Plan in 2000; however, populous states objected to the plan because it would have always scheduled their primaries at the end of the season. The Delaware Plan was put to vote at Republican National Convention of 2000 and rejected.

Lists of primaries

Pop culture trivia

A convention race did take place in fiction in the 2006 Democratic race on the television series The West Wing.

The first season of the popular television series 24 takes place "on the day of the California Presidential Primary."

References

Brereton Charles. First in the Nation: New Hampshire and the Premier Presidential Primary. Portsmouth, NH: Peter E. Randall Publishers, 1987.
Kendall, Kathleen E. Communication in the Presidential Primaries: Candidates and the Media, 1912-2000 (2000)
Hugh, Gregg. ""First-In-The-Nation Presidential Primary," State of New Hampshire Manual for the General Court, (Department of State) No.55, 1997.
Palmer, Niall A. The New Hampshire Primary and the American Electoral Process (1997)
Scala, Dante J. Stormy Weather: The New Hampshire Primary and Presidential Politics (2003)
Ware, Alan. The American Direct Primary: Party Institutionalization and Transformation in the North (2002), a British perspective
McGaughey, Bill. "On the Ballot in Louisiana". Minneapolis: Thistlerose Publications. ISBN 0960563067.] A minor candidate's experiences campaigning in Louisiana's 2004 Democratic presidential primary.

United States presidential primaries

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