SGER: A Study of State Political Party Endorsement Systems in Gubernatorial Nominations

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This is a study of nine preprimary endorsing conventions to be held by political parties in six states in 1998, designed to replicate a similar study carried out in 1994 by the researchers in the same states. Although the nomination of candidates is theoretically one of the most important responsibilities of parties, the use of the direct primary, required for nominations by the laws of almost all states has, undermined this function of American State parties. But one or both parties in about one-third of the states uses some institutional mechanisms in an effort to influence the nomination of candidates for some offices. This study is focused on political party endorsing conventions, including ones established by law in some states and those provided by party rules in other states. The research is designed to answer several questions about operations of endorsing conventions: What is the decision-making process used by conventions and what are the criteria for endorsing candidates? Under what conditions is the candidate endorsed by the convention most likely to be nominated? How do convention delegates evaluate the impact of the endorsement process? The cross-state research design makes it possible to compare endorsements made by different types of parties; the replication of previous research makes it possible to enlarge the number of cases studied and to examine trends over time, including the declining success of endorsees in the nominating process. The investigators will visit as many of the state endorsing conventions as possible, to get first-hand analysis of the process. The researchers then send questionnaires to a sample of 350 delegates from each convention, shortly after the convention meets, in order to get factual information and impressions about the endorsing process. The data set to be gathered will be of value to numerous other scholars.