Terms : Hide Images
| 5436443994 | Nomination | The official endorsement of a candidate for office by a political party. | 0 | |
| 5436469549 | Campaign Strategy | The master game plan candidates lay out to guide their electoral campaign. | 1 | |
| 5436475129 | National Party Convention | The supreme power within each of the parties. Meets every four years to nominate the party's presidential and vice presidential candidates and to write the party's platform. | 2 | |
| 5436495892 | McGovern-Fraser Commission | A commission formed at the 1968 Democratic Convention in response to demands for reform by minority groups and others who sought better representation. | 3 | |
| 5436502326 | Superdelegates | National Party leaders who automatically get a delegate slot at the national party convention. | 4 | |
| 5436507512 | Caucus | A system for selecting convention delegates used in about a dozen mostly rural states in which voters must show up at a set time and attend an open meeting to express their presidential preference. | 5 | |
| 5436517421 | Presidential Primaries | Elections in which a state's voters go to the polls to express their preference for a party's nominee for president. | 6 | |
| 5436560540 | Frontloading | The recent tendency of states to hold primaries early in the calendar in order to capitalize on media attention. | 7 | |
| 5436580662 | National Primary | A proposed nationwide primary that would replace the current system of caucuses and presidential primaries. | 8 | |
| 5436594366 | Regional Primary | A proposed series of primaries held in each geographic region that would replace the current system of caucuses and presidential primaries. | 9 | |
| 5436603949 | Party Platform | 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. | 10 | |
| 5436666415 | Direct Mail | A 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 list of those who have supported similar views or candidates in the past. | 11 | |
| 5436695599 | Federal Election Campaign Act | A law passed in 1974 for reforming campaign finances. The act created the Federal Election Commission, provided public financing for presidential primaries and general elections, limited presidential campaign spending, required disclosure, and attempted to limit contributions. | 12 | |
| 5436731461 | Federal Election Commission | A six member bipartisan agency created by the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1974. Administers and enforces campaign finance laws. | 13 | |
| 5436834505 | Presidential Election Campaign Fund | Money from the $3 Federal Income tax check-off goes into this fund, which is then distributed to qualified candidates to subsidize their presidential campaigns. | 14 | |
| 5436933189 | Matching Funds | Contributions of up to $250 are matched from the Presidential Election Campaign Fund to candidates for the presidential nomination who qualify and agree to meet various conditions, such as limiting their overall spending. | 15 | |
| 5436949978 | Soft Money | Political contributions ear-marked for party-building expenses at the grass-roots level or for generic party advertising. Unlike money that goes to the campaign of a particular candidate, such party donations are not subject to contribution limits. For a time, such contributions were unlimited until they were banned by the McCain-Feingold Act. | 16 | |
| 5436982101 | 527 Groups | Independent political groups that are not subject to contribution restrictions because they do not seek the election of particular candidates. Section 527 of the tax code specifies that contributions to such groups must be reported to the IRS. | 17 | |
| 5436994167 | 501c Groups | Groups that are exempted from reporting their contributions and can receive unlimited contributions. Section 501c of the tax code specifies that such groups cannot spend more than half their funds on political activities. | 18 | |
| 5437006444 | Political Action Committees | Funding vehicles created by the 1974 campaign finance reforms. A corporation, union, or some other interest group can create one and register it with the Federal Election Commission, which will meticulously monitor its expenditures. | 19 | |
| 5437021596 | Selective Perception | The phenomenon that people's beliefs often guide what they pay the most attention to and how they interpret events. | 20 |
