Party Organization I

For Wednesday, Hershey ch. 5.

The APSA report that shaped decades of scholarshp:

• American Political Science Association,  "Toward a More Responsible Two-party System. A Report of the Committee on Political Parties" (supplement to American Political Science Review 44, 3 (September, 1950)), http://www.uvm.edu/~dguber/POLS125/articles/apsa.pdf.

Volunteer for

• California GOP
• California Democrats
• California Libertarians
• California Greens

National Committees

• DNC and RNC
• Functions of out-party v. in-party
• THEY DO NOT SELECT PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES

Hill Committees

Structure:  answer to lawmakers in each chamber, not the national committee.

• DCCC and NRCC
• DSCC and NRSC

Functions and controversies (Hershey 88)

• Recruitment
• Endorsements in primaries (sometimes) -- Hershey 99-100.
• Financing and technical support

The 527 Groups

Exempt from federal contribution limits because they target non-federal (state) elections.Required to disclose their direct donors to the IRS, unlike dark-money 501(c)(4) affiliates.

Why do national party leaders care about state-level offices?

• RGA: Republican Governors Association
• DGA: Democratic Governors Association
• Springboard for Jerry Brown (1976, 1980, 1992), Howard Dean (2004), Michael Dukakis (1988), Bill Clinton (1992), and Andy Beshear (2028?)
• RAGA: Republican Attorneys General Association
• DAGA: Democratic Attorneys General Association
• RSLC: Republican State Leadership Committee
• DLCC: Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee

Also youth groups.

State Party Organizations (and an aside on citing Wikipedia):

• GOP state parties
• Democratic state parties

Sometimes extreme figures take over party organizations

State Election Law

• Partisan v. Nonpartisan local elections  and data on mayors
• Primaries
• Contribution limits

Supreme Court decisions curb patronage

Party Services and Party Money (Hershey pp. 87-88)

Example of contemporary state party activity: