CPS Vocab: Chapter 9

The official endorsement of a candidate for office by a political party

The master game plan candidates lay out to guide their electoral campaign

The supreme power within each of the parties. * Meets every four years to nominate the party’s presidential and vice-presidential candidates to write the party’s platforms

A commission formed at the 1968 Democratic convention in response to demands for reform by minority groups and others who sought better representation

National party leaders who automatically get a delegate slot at the National Party Convention

The period before any votes are cast when candidates compete to win early support from the elite of the party and to create a positive first impression of their leadership skills.

A system for selecting convention delegates (used in about a dozen states) in which voters must attend an open meeting to express their presidential preference

Elections in which a state’s voters go to the polls to express their preference for a party’s nominee for president. * Most delegates to the National Party Conventions are chosen this way

The recent tendency of states to hold primaries early in the calendar year in order to capitalize on media attention

A political party’s statement of its goals and policies for the next four years. * Drafted prior to the party convention by a committee whose members are chosen in rough proportion to each candidate’s strength * Best formal statement of a party’s beliefs

Method of raising money for a political cause or candidate, in which information and requests for money are sent to people whose names appear on lists of those who have supported similar views or candidates in the past.

Donations that are made directly to a candidate or a party and that must be reported to the FEC

Expenses on behalf of a political message that are made by groups that are uncoordinated with any candidate’s campaigns.

Law passed in 1974 for reforming campaign finances. The act created the FEC and provided for limits on and disclosure of campaign contributions.

Groups that raise money from individuals and then distribute it in the form of contributions to candidates that the group supports * Must register with the FEC * Must report their donations and contributions to the FEC * Individual donation limit: $5,000 * These may give up to $5,000 to a candidate for each election

A six-member bipartisan agency created by the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1974. * Administers and enforces campaign finance laws

Supreme Court struck down a portion for the campaign reform act that had limited the amount individuals could contribute to their own campaigns

Political contributions saved for party-building expenses at the grassroots level for generic party advertising

Independent political groups that aren’t subject to contribution restrictions because they don’t directly seek the election of particular candidates * This section of the tax code specifies that contributions to such groups must be reported to the IRS

Landmark Supreme Court case that ruled that individuals, corporations, and unions could donate unlimited amounts of money to groups that make independent political expenditures

Groups that are exempted from reporting their contributions and can receive unlimited contributions • This section of the tax code specifies that such groups cannot spend more than half their funds on political activities

• Independent expenditure-only PACs • May accept donations of any size and can endorse candidates • Contributions and expenditures must be periodically reported to the FEC

Phenomenon that people’s beliefs often guide what they pay the most attention to and how they interpret events

The legal right to vote in the US * Gradually extended to virtually all citizens over the age of 18