Notes from Wednesday March 26th, 2008

- What still goes on at a Party Convention?
1. Roll call
2. Officially picking the Presidential and VP candidates.
3. It is like a big Pep rally, a big infomercial.
4. They write the rules for the next convention, Known as the Rules committee, not like the ones in Congress
5. Write the party platform/ manifesto.

-Money and organizations are important to a candidate’s chances, the media tendss to pick a likely winner by tracking the different candidates fund-raising success in the year before the election, it’s called an "Invisible Primary."

- Front loading makes sure that they pick all of their delegates fast. It gives an extra advantage to the candidates who were front-runners during the invisible primaries.

- What did we learn from table 10.1 from the book? Look into that.
Blanket Primary
-WA, CA, AK, have had a blanket primary at some time
- Pick your favorite primary candidate from either party.

Non Partisan Primary
-Only in LA
- Like a blanket primary without party labels
- The general elections is the run-off
-can result in two DEMs or two GOP’s in the general election.

Presidential Primaries
"Selecting delegates to the national Conventions"

A mismatch of rules.
- DeMS often use proportional Rule process
- GOP mostly uses plurality rule
- Different formulas have been used to determine the number of delegates that will represent each state
- Super delegates add to the confusion.