Oly AP Gov vocab 9

110881211	Nomination	The official endorsement of a candidate for office by a political party. Generally, this requires momentum, money, and media attention.
110881212	Campaign Strategy	The master game plan candidates lay out to guide their electoral campaign.
110881213	National Party Convention	The supreme power within each of the parties. The party meets every four years to nominate its presidential and vice-presidential candidates and to write the party's platform.
110881214	Caucus	A meeting of all state party leaders for selecting delegates to the national party convention. These are usually organized as a pyramid.
110881215	Presidential Primaries	Elections in which voters in a state vote for a candidate (or delegates pledged to him or her). Most delegates to the national party conventions are chosen this way.
110881216	McGovern-Fraser Commission	Formed at the 1968 Democratic convention in response to demands for reform by minority groups and others who sought better representation.
110881217	Superdelegates	National party leaders who automatically get a delegate slot at the Democratic national party convention.
110881218	Frontloading	The recent tendency of states to hold primaries early in the calendar in order to capitalized on media attention.
110881219	National Primary	A proposal by critics of the caucuses and presidential primaries, which would replace these electoral methods with a nationwide primary held early in the election year.
110881220	Regional Primaries	A proposal by critics of the caucuses and presidential primaries to replace these electoral methods with a series of primaries held in each geographic region.
110881221	Party Platform	A political party's statement of its goals and policies for the next four years. This is drafted prior to the party convention by a committee whose members are chosen in rough proportion to each candidate's strength. It is the best formal statement of a party's beliefs.
110881222	Direct Mail	A high-tech method of raising money for a political cause or candidate. It involves sending information and requests for money to people whose names appear on lists of those who have supported similar views or candidates in the past.
110881223	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.
110881224	Federal Election Commission	A six-member bipartisan agency created by the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1974. It administers and enforces campaign finance laws.
110881225	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.
110881226	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.
110881227	Soft Money	Political contributions earmarked 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.
110881228	527 Groups	Independent groups that seek to influence the political process but are not subject to contribution restrictions because they do not directly seek the election of particular candidates. Their name comes from a section of the federal tax code, under which they are governed.
110881229	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.
110881230	Selective perception	The phenomenon that people often pay the most attention to things they already agree with and interpret them according to their own predispositions.