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Critical Elections

Question	Answer
Critical Election	voters come together to dominate the political system for a generation (about 30 years); election which ushers in a new political era
deviating election	The minority party temporarily takes over power during a party era
Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act	An act to ban soft money contributions to national parties, limit soft money contributions to state and local parties (only for party building), raise individual limits from $1000 to $2000 and restrict independent expenditures.
Divided government	A government in which one party controls the White House and another party controls one or both houses of Congress.
hard money	Direct contributions to the candidate.
gerrymandering	Policy of dividing voting districts to make it easier for candidates of the party in power to win elections in those districts.
Party dealignment	The gradual disengagement of people and politicians from the parties; evidenced by shrinking party identification
front loading	The tendency of states to hold primaries early in the calender year in order to capitalize on media attention.
Coalition	The union of diverse interests into one body or group.
Maintaining election	An election in which the majority party retains power.
Individual expenditures	Spending by political action committees on political matters that is done directly and not by giving money to a candidate or party.
reinstating election	An election in which the dominate party of the political era wins power back.
Soft money	Money collected by political parties to pay for its activities and expenses such as voting drives; not spent on candidates.
Super Tuesday	A presidential primary date created by a group of Southern states in the hopes of promoting a regional advantage and a more conservative candidate.
straight-ticket voting	Voting for candidates who are all of the same party; for example, voting for the Republican candidates for senator, representative, and president.
split-ticket voting	An election result in which a congressional district (or voter) votes for the presidential candidate of one party and the congressional candidate of the other party.
runoff primary	A type of primary used in some southern states. If no candidate gets a majority of the votes in the first primary vote, the two candidates with the most votes vie in a second primary election.
party realignment	The situation when a new issue of utmost importance to voters cuts across existing party divisions and replaces old issues that formed the basis of party identification.
pocketbook vote	The belief that during good economic times the party holding the White House normally does well and during poor times does badly at election time.
realigning or critical periods	Periods during which a sharp, lasting shift occurs in the popular coalition supporting one or both parties. The issues that separate the two parties change, so the kinds of voters supporting each party change.
Federal Elections Campaign Act	Law limiting individual (hard money) donations to $1000, banning direct corporate and union ddonations, banning foreign contributions, reporting all contributions to the FEC, requiring that all adds include the name of the sponsor
Wesberry v Sanders	This case enforced the one person, one vote precedent in the case of redistricting. This meant that every person's vote should be mathematically equal to another person's vote.
public finance law / Matching funds	A federal law providing funds to candidates seeking the presidency. In primaries, matching funds are available only after eligibility requirements are fulfilled. In the general election, the federal government gives candidates of major parties the option
Shaw v Reno	The 5-4 decision that redistricting based on race must be held to a standard of strict scrutiny under the equal protection clause. Affected redistricting and racial gerrymandering.
primary election	The first election in a campaign; it determines a party’s nominee for an office.
McConnell v Federal Election Commission	Ruled that the government had a legitimate interest in limiting the appearance of corruption and BCRA was the least restrictive way of doing so.
presidential primary	A special kind of primary used to pick delegates to the presidential nominating conventions of the major parties.
political action committee	A committee, set up by an interest group representing a corporation, labor union, or other interest, to contribute financially to candidates and campaigns.
Baker v Carr	Set the precedent that the federal courts could hear state redistricting cases.
Bush v Vera	The issue was whether Texas redistricting plan violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. Ruled the plans did violate in a 5-4 decision.
Buckley v Valeo	Ruled that limits are allowed on hard money, but Congress can't limit citizens from spending their own money on their own campaign.
blanket primary	A variant of the open primary in which the voter receives a ballot that lists the candidates for nomination of all the parties, enabling the voter to vote for candidates of different parties. These have been ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
open primary	A type of primary in which the voter can decide upon entering the voting booth in which party’s primary to participate.
closed primary	A type of primary in which the voter must be a registered member of a political party to vote in that party’s primary.
incumbent	The person currently in office.
coattails (political)	The tendency of lesser-known or weaker candidates to profit in an election by the presence of a more popular candidate on the ticket.
general election	The second election in a campaign (primary is first). It determines which party’s nominee will win office.

Created by: afailoni

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