The Presidential Nominating Process: A Place for Us? (American Political Challenges) - Softcover

Cook, Rhodes

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0742525945 ISBN 13: 9780742525948

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003

Synopsis

The sprawling nominating process is the critical first step every four years in the election of the president. It is where the field of contenders is narrowed from a plethora of aspirants to the two finalists that carry the banners of the Democratic and Republican parties into the fall campaign.

In a democracy such as ours, the voters should be major players in this process. Yet while 100 million or more Americans regularly participate in the election of the president, rarely does more than a third that number vote in the presidential primaries and caucuses that nominate the candidates. And only a small percentage of these voters have a truly meaningful voice - the fortunate few in Iowa, New Hampshire and a handful of other early voting states that for all practical purposes decide for the rest of the nation who the nominees will be.

The thrust of this book is to discuss how we as a nation got to this point, how the nominating process currently works, how that compares to other countries, and how our process might be changed to give a more meaningful voice to a much larger number of voters.

About this title

About the Author

Rhodes Cook has covered presidential and congressional elections for more than a quarter century - as a political writer for Congressional Quarterly from 1975 through 1997; since then as author of "The Rhodes Cook Letter," the host of a political website, and as a contributing editor for "Public Perspective." Since 1996, he has been the author of "America Votes" (a biennial compilation of nationwide election data) and has written several books on the presidential nominating process, most recently "United States Presidential Primary Elections 1968-1996: A Handbook of Election Statistics" and "Race for the Presidency: Winning the 2000 Nomination." He lives in Annandale, Virginia, with his wife, Memrie.

Reviews

As we gear up for Election 2004, veteran political analyst Cook asks a timely question: Why does the United States rely on dysfunctional presidential primaries that give such a small percentage of voters disproportionate influence in choosing the two main contenders? In his crisp appraisal of presidential nominating processes, the former Congressional Quarterly writer underscores a key paradox: although some 150 million voters are eligible to participate in state presidential primaries and caucuses, only the "kingmakers"-voters in Iowa, New Hampshire and the states that vote soon afterward-actually anoint the Democratic and Republican nominees. The overwhelming majority of voters are mere "confirmers," who ratify the kingmakers' choices midway through the primary season, or "rubber stamps," who weigh too late to make any difference. Cook surveys the evolutionary "stages" that brought voters to this point, from the Founding era's congressional caucuses to the 19th century's national party conventions to the current presidential primary scene. The "steady progression of political Darwinism" has shortchanged voters, Cook says, replacing yesterday's party bosses with today's kingmaker early birds. He scours six other countries (Great Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Mexico and Israel) for clues in their streamlined, less expensive nomination procedures and finds at least one mechanism travels well: the single nationwide primary. Though some proposals suggest national, rotating regional or population-based presidential primary, Cook concludes there is "no consensus" on reform among national and state government and party officials. Will greater numbers of voters ever play a real role in future nominating contests? That's hard to know; even the author concedes "incremental evolution wins out in the long run." Bolstered by Cook's authoritative primary election statistical analyses, this plain-speaking work delivers a concise, even-handed overview of one of the most contentious areas in contemporary American politics.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0742525945
• ISBN 13: 9780742525948
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 184