Primaries and Caucuses
- Created by: DaisyR13
- Created on: 07-06-14 16:08
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- Primaries and Caucuses
- When primaries are held
- Different types of primaries
- Closed
- Only Republicans can vote in the Republican primaries and the same for Democrats
- Open
- In 2012 in Wisconsin this led to 11% of the people that voted for the Republican party were actually Democrats
- Modified
- In 2012 10 states held these
- Proportional
- This is how it is done in most states
- Winner takes all
- Only 8 of these contests in 2012 for Republicans eg Arizona
- Closed
- Presidential party caucuses
- 12 states used a caucus in the 2012 Republican contest such as Iowa
- Most important states to win
- Winning early contests
- In 2007 the favourite for the Democratic normination was Clinton but Obama's victory in Iowa shot him into the limelight and helped him to win
- In 2008 McCain got 13% in the Iowa caucus but still went on to win the nomination and similarly in 2012 Mitt Romney did badly but went onto win the nomination
- Winning the big states
- Big states like California and Texas have more delegates and so focus can be given to these states rather than some smaller states that come earlier
- Winning in as many states as possible
- In the 2008 race for the Republican nomination Mike Huckabee was in 5th place in the opinion polls but then went on to win in 7 states and this made him look like the front runner
- Is front loading now dead?
- Although the rule cahnges in 2012 reduced the effectivness of front loading it can still give a candidate a big advantage when winning the early states
- Winning early contests
- Primaries and the incumbent party
- Ideological differences
- In the Republican party there is a deep division between the moderate conservatives like Romney and the right wing radicals in groups like the 'Tea Party'"
- Personal rivalry
- In 1980 Jimmy Carter had not been successful in his first term and Edward Kennedy decided to run against him
- Gain public attention for a cause or issue
- In 2012 Obama faced a challenge from 15 other people in the primaries but only 4 of them stood against him in more than one state
- Keith Judd stood against Obama in West Virginia and got 40% of the vote even though he was serving a prison sentence and he was protesting against his conviction and picked up anti Obama votes
- In 2012 Obama faced a challenge from 15 other people in the primaries but only 4 of them stood against him in more than one state
- Ideological differences
- Individual primaries
- When primaries are held
- In 2012 the first 3 primaries were all held on separate days to maximise the impact of the result
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