• Closed primary

• a primary nominating election in which only declared party members can vote

• Coattail effect

• The effect of a strong candidate running for an office at the top of a ballot helping to attract voters to other candidate on the party’s ticket

• Electoral coalition

• an association of political parties or individuals which exists solely to stand in elections

• General election

• The regularly scheduled election at which voters make final selection of officeholders

• Incumbent

• The current holder of a political office

• Negative ad

• Ad to win an advantage by referring to negative aspects of an opponent or of a policy rather than emphasizing one's own positive attributes or preferred policies

• Office-bloc ballot

• A ballot listing all candidates for a given office under the name of that office; also called a “Massachusetts” ballot

• Open primary

• A party nominating election in which any qualified voter can take part

• Party-column ballot

• A ballot listing all candidates of a given party together under the name of that party; also called an “Indiana” ballot

• Political action committee

• The political extension of special interest groups which have a major stake in public policy

• Position issue

• An issue dividing the electorate on which rival parties adopt different policy positions to attract voters

• Presidential primary

• An election in which a party’s voters – 1. Choose State party organization’s delegates

to their party’s national convention and/or

– 2. Express a preference for their party’s presidential nomination

• Primary election

• An election prior to the general election in which voters select candidates who will run on each party’s ticket

• Prospective voting

• Voting for a candidate because one favors his or her ideas for addressing issues after the election

• Public finance law

• 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, and so the kinds of voters supporting each party change.

• Realignment

• The shift in popular coalition supporting one or both parties.

• Two kinds of realignment– When a major is so badly defeated that it

disappears and a new party emerges– When both party continues but voters shift their

support from one party to the other

• Retrospective voting

• Voting for or against the candidate or party in office because one likes or dislikes how things have gone in the recent past

• Runoff primary

• A primary in which the top two vote-getters in the first direct primary face one another

• Split ticket voting

• Voting for candidates of different political parties for different offices at the same election

• Spots

• Short television ads

• Straight-ticket voting

• The practice of voting for candidates of only one political party at an election

• Theme

• The theme of a campaign of presidential candidates

• A simple, appealing that can be repeated over and over again

• Ex: – Jimmy Carter (1976) – trust– Ronald Regan (1980) – competence– George Bush (1988) – stay on course– Bill Clinton (1992) – we need to change

• Tone

• The tone of a campaign of presidential candidates, can be either:– Positive (build-me-up)– Negative (attack-the-opponent)

• Valence issue

• An issue on which voters distinguish rival parties by the degree to which they associate each party or candidate with conditions, goals or symbols the electorate universally approves or disapproves of

• Visual

• A campaign activity that appears on news broadcast