| Question | Answer |
| Winner-Take-All Primaries | The candidate getting the most voted from a state's caucus or primary gets all of that state's delegates at the national convention. Republicans usually use this strategy. |
| Clothespin Vote | The vote cast by a person who does not like either candidate so votes for the less objectionable of the two, putting a "clothespin" over his/her nose to keep out the unpleasant stench. |
| Primary Election | An election held to choose which candidates for office. |
| PAC/Political Action Committee | A group formed to raise and contribute money to the campaigns of candidates likely to advance the groups interests. |
| Closed Primary | A primary election in which voting is limited to already registered party members. |
| White Primaries | Primary Elections in the southern states in which any non-white voter was prohibited from participating. |
| Federal Election Campaign Act (1974) | Law that governs financing of federal elections; requires candidates and committees to disclose funding sources and spending; regulates the contributions recieved and spending during election campaigns and governs public funding of presidential elections. |
| Whistle-Stop Train Tour | A style of political campaigning where politicians make a series of appearances at a few small towns over a short period of time. Originally, these were conducted from and open platform of an observation or private railroad car. |
| Federal Matching Funds | Money supplied to campaign funds from public resources and administered by the Federal Election Committee. |
| Prospective Voting | Voting for a candidate because you favor his/her ideas for handling issues. |
| Hard Money | Money regulated by law and can be used to influence the outcome of federal elections, that is, to advocate the election of specific candidates. |
| Runoff Primary | A second primary election held when no candidate wins a majority of the votes in the first primary. |
| Incumbent | Those already holding public office. In Congressional elections, incumbents usually win due to advantages such as free mailings and travel at public expense. |
| Position Issue | An issue about which the public is divided and rival candidates or political parties adopt different policy positions. |
| Straight Ticket Voting | Votin for candidates of the same party for multiple positions. |
| "Front-Loading" Nomination Process | The execution of a front-loaded campaign. |
| Opposition Research | Research done in order to discover damaging or detrimental information about somebody. |
| Blanket Primary | A primary election in which each voter may vote for candidates from both parties. |
| Coattails | The tendency for a popular political party leader to attract votes for other candidates of the same party in an election. |
| Super Tuesday | During the presidential primary season there may be several groups of primaries in various regions falling on one or more Tuesdays. These groupingss are important because the weight of such a large, simultaneous vote tends to make or break nominees. |
| Split Ticket Voting | Voting for people in seperate political parties. |
| Retrspective Voting | Voting for a candidate because you like his/her past actions in office. |
| Open Primary | A primary election in which voters may choose in which party to vote as they enter the polling place. |
| Bush vs. Gore (2000) | Major Supreme Court case in which the 2000 presidential election was effectively resolved in favor of Bush. |
| Smith vs. Allwright (1944) | An important Supreme Court decision with regard to voting rights and by eextension racial desegregation. It overturned the Democratic party's use of all-white primaries in Texas and other states. |
| Caucus (especially Iowa) | In some states a type of primary election to select presidential candidates. Iowa holds the first caucus of the election season and dictates how well a candidate will do. |
| General Election | An election held to choose which candidate will hold office in which all eligible voters vote at the same time. |
| Straw Poll | Unofficial poll that is used either to predict the outcome of an official vote or to guage the relative strength of conditions for office in a futute election. |
| Primary (especially New Hampshire) | An election in which voters in a jurisdiction select candidates for a subsequent election. New Hampshire primary is the first in a series of nationwide political party primary elections. |
| Buckley vs. Valeo | Landmark 1976 decision on campaign finance law that upheld the Federal Election Campaign Act's disclosure requirements, contribution limits, and provision for public funding of presidential election campaigns. |
| Federal Election Commission (FEC) | An independent regulatory agency charged with administering and enforcing federal campaign finance law. the FEC was established by the 1974 amendment to the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971. |
| Valence Issue | An issue about which the public is united and rival candidates or parties adopt similar positions in hopes that each will be thought to best represent those widely shared beliefs. |
| Front-Loaded Campaign | The practice of scheduling state party caucuses and primaries earlier every year. By moving these dates back, states hope to lend decisive momentum to one or two presidential candidates and thus have disproportionate influence on each party's nomination. |
| Crtitical/Realigning Election | An election which causes dramatic change in the political system. |
| Soft Money | Funds obtained by political parties that are spent on party activities, such as get-out-the-vote drives but not on behalf of a specific candidate. |
| Campaign Spots | Commercials for campaigns and candidates. |
