| 
Political Glossary
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . 527 Group
A 527 group is a type of American tax-exempt organization named after a section of the United States tax code, 26 U.S.C. § 527. A 527 group is created primarily to influence the nomination, election, appointment or defeat of candidates for public office. Although candidate committees and political action committees are also created under Section 527, the term is generally used to refer to political organizations that are not regulated by the Federal Election Commission or by a state elections commission, and are not subject to the same contribution limits as PACs.
Current legislation
Congress is currently considering new limits on 527s (comment on bill, analysis of bill.)
Because 527 organizations do not make expenditures to directly advocate the election or defeat of any candidate for federal elective office they avoid regulation by the Federal Election Commission. The line between issue advocacy and candidate advocacy is the source of heated debate and litigation.
Many 527s are run by special interest groups and used to raise unlimited amounts of money to spend on issue advocacy and voter mobilization.
Examples of 527s include Americans for Dr. Rice, Americans for Honesty on Issues, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, Texans for Truth, The Media Fund, America Coming Together, the Moveon.org Voter Fund, the Progress for America Voter Fund, United American Technologies and the November Fund.
Source: Wikipedia Ad Disclaimers
A "disclaimer" notice is defined as a statement placed on a public communication that identifies the person(s) who paid for the communication and, where applicable, the person(s) who authorized the communication.
Source: FEC.gov
For more information on dislaimers, visit http://www.fec.gov/pages/brochures/notices.shtml#disclaimers Ballot Initiative or Proposition
In political science, the initiative (also known as popular or citizen's initiative) provides a means by which a petition signed by a certain minimum number of registered voters can force a public vote on a proposed statute, constitutional amendment, charter amendment or ordinance, or, in its minimal form, to simply oblige the executive or legislative bodies to consider the subject by submitting it to the order of the day. It is a form of direct democracy. It has also been referred to as "minority initiative," thus relating it to minority influence [1]. Furthermore, it is, in itself, a politically neutral tool, despite its name which refers it to the "people." It can be used as well for conservative proposal as for progressive ends.
The initiative may take the form of either the direct or indirect initiative. Under the direct initiative, a measure is put directly to a vote after being submitted by a petition. Under the indirect initiative, a measure is first referred to the legislature, and then only put to a popular vote if not enacted by the legislature. In United States usage, a popular vote on a specific measure is referred to as a referendum only when originating with the legislature. Such a vote is known, when originating in the initiative process, as an "initiative," "ballot measure" or "proposition."
In the United States the initiative is in use, at the level of state government, in 24 states and the District of Columbia [1], and is also in common use at the local and city government level. The initiative has been recognized in the US since at least 1777 when provision was made for it by the first constitution of Georgia.
The modern U.S. system of initiative and referendum originated in the state of Oregon in 1902, when the state's legislators adopted it by an overwhelming majority. The "Oregon System", as it was at first known, subsequently spread to many other states, and became one of the signature reforms of the Progressive Era (1890s-1920s). Well known U.S. initiatives include various measures adopted by voters in states such as Washington, Oregon, California, Massachusetts and Alaska.
Source: Wikipedia Bundling
Bundling is the practice of one donor gathering donations from many different individuals in an organization or community and presenting the sum to a campaign. Source: Wikipedia
Campaign contexts
In contexts of the efforts of candidates, party activities and ballot measure campaigns, "get-out-the-vote" (or GOTV) is an adjective indicating having the effect of increasing the number of the campaign's supporters who will vote in the immediately approaching election. (As a noun, "get out the vote" or GOTV is shorthand for either "get-out-the-vote activities" or "the previously planned get-out-the-vote portion of our campaign".)
GOTV generally is distinguished from preliminary activities necessary to carrying it out. That is, GOTV includes telephoning known supporters on the day of the election (or occasionally in the last few days before it to remind them to vote, and providing rides to the polls to known supporters), but the process of identifying those supporters is generally described as a separate part of the campaign, voter identification ("ID-ing") -- the major focus of canvassing.
Other GOTV activities include literature drops early on election day or the evening before and an active tracking of eligible voters who have already voted.
The terminology reflects a distinction of GOTV from the complementary strategy of suppressing turnout among likely opposition voters. Political consultants are reputed to privately advise some candidates to "go negative" (attack an opponent), without any intent to sway voters toward them: this plan is to instead increase the number of eligible voters who fail to vote, because their tendency to believe "politics is inherently corrupt" has so recently been reinforced. Such turnout suppression can be advantageous where any combination of three conditions apply:
- The negative campaigning is targeted (by direct mail, telephone "push polls," or the like) on likely opposing voters, reducing the collateral damage to supporters morale.
- The side going negative has an advantage in its supporters being steadier voters than those of its opponent.
- The side going negative has an advantage in doing effective GOTV, so that its campaign workers can get a GOTV "antidote" to more supporters "poisoned" by the negative campaign, than the opposing campaign can of their own supporters.
The importance of get out the vote efforts increases as the total percentage of the population voting decreases. For instance, with only two-thirds of the population voting in a Canadian election it is often far easier and more cost effective to ensure that a hundred supporters show up on polling day than it is to convince a hundred voters to switch support from one party to the other. This has also tended to polarize electoral politics. A 90% turnout from a party's radical base is often better than a 50 percent turnout from both radical and moderate supporters.
GOTV can also be extremely important in high turn-out elections when they are extremely close. In these elections turnout can be critical in determining the election results.
Source: Wikipedia FEC / Federal Election Commission
The Federal Election Commission (or FEC) is an independent regulatory agency created in 1975 by the United States Congress to administer and enforce campaign finance legislation in the United States. It was created in a provision of the 1975 amendment to the Federal Election Campaign Act. It describes its duties as "to disclose campaign finance information, to enforce the provisions of the law such as the limits and prohibitions on contributions, and to oversee the public funding of Presidential elections."
GOTV / Get-Out-the-Vote
"Get out the vote," sometimes "GOTV," is a term used to describe two categories of political activity, both aimed at increasing the number of votes cast in one or more elections.
Impartial contexts
In impartial contexts "Get out the vote" is a slogan (and "get out the vote" is a generic grammatical predicate) used by non-partisan organizations, such as the League of Women Voters, Rock the Vote and Women's Voices that are nominally or sincerely motivated by the belief that failure of any eligible voter to vote in any election entails a loss to society, rather than by a desire to assist a particular party, candidate or campaign. Hard money / Soft money
Campaign finance in the United States is the financing of electoral campaigns at the federal, state, and local levels. At the federal level, the primary source of campaign funds is individuals; political action committees are a distant second. Contributions from both are limited. These regulated donations are often referred to as hard money. Corporations and unions are prohibited from contributing directly to a candidate's campaign. Soft money are funds spent by organizations that are not contributed directly to candidate campaigns, and which do not "expressly advocate" the election or defeat of a candidate. Bundling is the practice of one donor gathering donations from many different individuals in an organization or community and presenting the sum to a campaign.
Prior to the 2002 passage of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (also known as "McCain-Feingold"), political parties and other organizations could spend unregulated "soft money" for a variety of activities, including "issue advertising", a broad term that included any advertising that stopped short of expressly advocating the election or defeat of a candidate through words and phrases such as "vote for," "vote against," "support," "defeat," "elect" and the like. As it was not actually received or spent by the candidate's campaign, and did not expressly advocate the election or defeat of a candidate, there were no legal limits. McCain-Feingold prohibited national political parties from raising or spending "soft money," but other organizations may still do so.Hard money - campaign funds regulated by law that are used to influence the election of federal candidates.
Soft money - funds not regulated by law and not able to be spent to influence the election of federal candidates, but are for voter registration drives, party-building activities, and administrative costs to help state and local candidates.
Source: Wikipedia
McCain-Feingold
The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA, McCain–Feingold Act, Pub.L. 107-155, 116 Stat. 81, enacted 2002-03-27) is United States federal law that regulates the financing of political campaigns. Its chief sponsors were Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Russell Feingold (D-WI). The law became effective on 6 November 2002, and the new legal limits became effective on 1 January 2003.
In June of 2007 the U.S. Supreme Court held, in Federal Election Commission v. Wisconsin Right to Life, Inc., that BCRA's limitations on broadcast ads mentioning a candidate within 30 days of a primary or caucus or 60 days of a general election were unconstitutional unless a generous exemption was granted for any ad that might reasonably be considered an ad about political issues. Many observers on both sides of the debate believe that this decision effectively nullifies the electioneering communications provisions of the law.
Source: Wikipedia
NOTE: Newspapers are specifically exempt from BCRA. Membership
The Commission is made up of six members, who are appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the United States Senate. Each member serves a six-year term, and two seats are subject to appointment every two years. By law, no more than three Commissioners can be members of the same political party, and at least four votes are required for any official Commission action. This structure was created to encourage nonpartisan decisions and, some claim, to discourage rulings which would be harmful to both major parties.
The Chairmanship of the Commission rotates among the members each year, with no member serving as Chairman more than once during his or her term. The current composition of the FEC includes Republican commissioners David Mason (Vice Chairman) and Hans von Spakovsky, and Democratic commissioners Robert Lenhard (Chairman), Stephen Walther and Ellen Weintraub. One Republican seat is vacant due to the resignation of Commissioner Michael Toner in March 2007.Official duties
Although the Commission's name implies broad authority over U.S. elections, in fact its role is limited almost exclusively to the administration of federal campaign finance laws. It enforces limitations and prohibitions on contributions and expenditures, investigates and prosecutes violations (investigations are typically initiated by complaints from other candidates, parties, "watchdog groups," and the public), audits a limited number of campaigns and organizations for compliance, and administers the presidential campaign fund, which provides public funds to candidates for president.
The FEC also publishes reports filed by Senate, House of Representatives and Presidential campaigns that list how much each campaign has raised and spent, and a list of all donors over $200, along with each donor's home address, employer and job title. This database also goes back to 1980. Private organizations are legally prohibited from using these data to solicit new individual donors (and the FEC authorizes campaigns to include a limited number of "dummy" names as a measure to prevent this), but may use this information to solict Political Action Committees. While these exhaustive campaign finance resources are available to everyone, they are rarely used by the public. The FEC also maintains an active program of public education, directed primarily to explaining the law to the candidates, campaigns and committees which it regulates.
Source: Wikipedia
Note: The FEC only covers federal elections, i.e. presidential, senatorial and congressional races. Laws regarding statwide and local races vary by state. For laws pertaining to a specific state, see that states’ Department of Elections.
Generally, with the sole exception of disclaimers, federal law puts not restrictions on newspaper advertising. However, states law varies by state (see state department of elections for more information). Midterm Elections
Midterm elections are elections in the United States in which members of Congress, state legislatures, and some state governors are elected, but not the president.
On the Tuesday following the first Monday in November of every even-numbered year, elections are held for all 435 members of the United States House of Representatives and 33 or 34 of the 100 members of the United States Senate. However, Presidential elections occur only every four years. Those elections for Congress that do not coincide with Presidential races are called midterm elections, because they occur about midway through a Presidential term.
Thirty-four of the 50 U.S. states elect their governors to four-year terms during midterm elections, while Vermont and New Hampshire elect governors to two-year terms in midterm and presidential elections. Thus, 36 governors are elected during midterm elections. States also elect officers to their state legislatures and county offices every two years, occurring with both mid-terms and presidential years.
The next midterm elections for the House, Senate, and governorships are scheduled for November 2, 2010.
Source: WikipediaPAC / Political Action Committee
In the US, a political action committee, or PAC, is the name commonly given to a private group, regardless of size, organized to elect or defeat government officials or to promote legislation. Legally, what constitutes a "PAC" for purposes of regulation is a matter of state and federal law. Under the Federal Election Campaign Act, an organization becomes a "political committee" by receiving contributions or making expenditures in excess of $1,000 for the purpose of influencing a federal election.
Contributions by individuals to federal PACs are limited to $5000. Corporations and unions may not contribute to federal PACs, though they may pay for the administrative costs of a PAC affiliated with the specific corporation or union. Corporate and union affiliated PACs may only solicit contributions from executives, shareholders and their families (in the case of corporations) or members (in the case of unions). "Independent" PACs not affiliated with a corporation or union may solicit contributions from the general public but must pay their operating costs from these regulated contributions.
Federal Multi-candidate PACs are limited in the amount of money they can contribute to other organizations:
Contributions by individuals to federal PACs are limited to $5000. Corporations and unions may not contribute to federal PACs, though they may pay for the administrative costs of a PAC affiliated with the specific corporation or union. Corporate and union affiliated PACs may only solicit contributions from executives, shareholders and their families (in the case of corporations) or members (in the case of unions). "Independent" PACs not affiliated with a corporation or union may solicit contributions from the general public but must pay their operating costs from these regulated contributions.
Federal Multi-candidate PACs are limited in the amount of money they can contribute to other organizations:
- at most $5,000 per candidate per election. Elections such as primaries, general elections and special elections are counted separately.
- at most $15,000 per political party per year.
- at most $5,000 per PAC per year.
Under federal law, PACs are not limited in their ability to spend money independently of a candidate campaign.
Source: Wikipedia Primary
A primary election is an election in which voters in a jurisdiction select candidates for a subsequent election (nominating primary). In other words, primary elections are generally when each political party decides its nominee for the upcoming general election.
Types of Primaries
Closed. Voters may vote in a party's primary only if they are registered members of that party. Independents cannot participate.
Semi-closed. Like in closed primaries, registered Republicans and Democrats can vote only in their own party's primary. However, semi-closed systems allow unaffiliated voters to participate as well. Depending on the state, independents either make their choice of party primary privately, inside the voting booth, or publicly, by registering with either the Republican or Democratic Party on Election Day.
Open. A registered voter may vote in any party primary regardless of his or her own party affiliation. When voters do not pre-register with a party before the primary, it is called a pick-a-party primary because the voter can select which party's primary he wishes to vote in on election day.
Because of the open nature of this system, a practice known as "raiding" may occur. "Raiding" consists of voters of one party crossing over and voting in the primary of another party. The purpose is usually to vote for the weakest candidate of the opposing party in order to give their own party the advantage in the general election if that weak candidate were to win the nomination.
Semi-open. All voters may vote in any single primary, but must publicly declare which primary they will vote in before entering the voting booth. Typically this declaration is accomplished by requesting a ballot. In many states with semi-open primaries, election officials record each voter's choice of party and provide the parties access to the information.
Blanket. No longer in use, except in Louisiana, where a modified version is used. This system allowed voters to vote for one candidate per office, regardless of which party they were a member of.
Run-off. A primary in which the ballot is not restricted to one party and the top two candidates advance to the general election regardless of party affiliation.
Some states have mixed systems. In West Virginia, Republican primaries are open to independents, while Democratic primaries were closed. However, as of April 1, 2007, West Virginia's Democratic Party opened its voting to allow "individuals who are not affiliated with any existing recognized party to participate in the election process" [1].
Other ways that parties may select candidates include caucuses and conventions.
Source: Wikipedia Primary Challenges
A primary challenge occurs in U.S. politics when an incumbent elected official is challenged in an upcoming primary election by a member of his own political party.
Source: Wikipedia
Proposition
(see Ballot Initiative)
Referendum
A referendum (plural: 'referendums' or 'referenda') or plebiscite (from Latin plebiscita, originally a decree of the Concilium Plebis) is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may be the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. The referendum or plebiscite is a form of direct democracy.
In the United States, the term "referendum" typically refers to a popular vote to overturn legislation already passed at the state or local levels (mainly in the western United States). By contrast, "initiatives" and "legislative referrals" consist of newly drafted legislation submitted directly to a popular vote as an alternative to adoption by a legislature. Collectively, referendums and initiatives in the United States are commonly referred to as ballot measures, initiatives or propositions.
There is no provision for the holding of referendums at the federal level in the United States. However, the constitutions of 24 states (principally in the West) and many local and city governments provide for referendums and citizen's initiatives. The most famous U.S. state initiative is probably California's Proposition 13 which severely limited property tax increases. They are especially popular in modifying state constitutions.
Source: Wikipedia Special Interest Group
An interest group (also called an advocacy group, lobbying group, pressure group (UK), or special interest) is a group, however loosely or tightly organized, doing advocacy: those determined to encourage or prevent changes in public policy without trying to be elected.
Source: Wikipedia
Swing Voters
Swing vote is a term used to describe a vote that may go to any of a number of candidates in an election. They are usually sought after in elections, since they can play a big role in who wins and loses.
A swing voter or floating voter is a voter who may not be affiliated with a particular political party (independents) or who will vote across party lines. Examples include "Reagan Democrats" (Democrats who voted for Republican Ronald Reagan in the 1980s and "Clinton Conservatives" (Republicans who voted for Bill Clinton).
Source: Wikipedia Third Party
Third parties in the United States are political parties other than the two major parties that participate in national and state elections, although there may actually be more than three parties. Historically, the U.S. has a two-party system. Following Duverger's law, the Electoral College with its "winner take all" award of electors in presidential elections has, over time, created the two-party system. Another contributing factor is the division of the government into three separate branches which differs from the parliamentary system.
Although third parties rarely win elections, they play an important role in democratic government. Third parties draw attention to issues that may be ignored by the majority parties. If the issue finds resonance with the voters, one or more of the major parties may adopt the issue into its own party platform. Also a third party may be used by the voter to cast a protest vote as if in a referendum on an important issue.
Source: Wikipedia back to top |