Selecting a President:

1
Selecting a President

• Primaries Caucuses

2
Presidential Selection

• Stage 1 Caucuses Primaries The Battle
  for the Party Faithful
• Stage 2 Nominating Conventions
  Glorified Infomercials?
• Stage 3 General Election
• The Fight for the Center
• Stage 4 Electoral College
• Power to the People?

3
Stage 1 Caucuses
Barrack Obama campaigns in Iowa

• Closed meeting of party members in each state
• Delegates select the partys choice for
  presidential candidate
• Currently, six states, including Nevada in 2008,
  offer party caucuses selecting presidential
  nominees.

4
Stage 1 Caucuses
Hilary Clinton (D) and Rudy Guilliani (R)
campaigning in Iowa

• Questions for Discussion
• The Iowa Caucus is on January 3, 2008. Why is it
  so important?
• Brainstorm pros and cons to the caucus format.

5
Stage 1 Primaries
Presidential Primary Elections - special
elections in which voters select candidates to be
the partys nominee for president in the general
election.

• Primary Season - January - June
• Who Decides? - State party organizations for the
  most part decide the rules for the primaries in a
  particular state.
• Types of Primaries
• Closed Primaries
• Open Primaries

Mitt Romney campaigning in New Hampshire
6
Closed Primary

• Voters may vote in a party's primary only if they
  are registered members of that party

7
Open Primary

• A registered voter may vote in any party primary
  regardless of his or her own party affiliation.

8
Methods of Selecting Presidential Delegates by
State
9
2008 Open Closed Primaries
10
Map of 2008 Primary Caucus Dates
11
(No Transcript)
12
(No Transcript)
13
(No Transcript)
14
(No Transcript)