Abstract
In 1996 there were 931 persons who somehow got their names on the ballots in the states as candidates for the 435 seats in the United States House of Representatives. In addition, 68 persons were granted candidacy for 34 seats in the United States Senate. In the race for president, there were at least twelve Republican candidates and a scattering of Democrats who considered a candidacy but none of whom seriously challenged President Clinton. There was, however, Ross Perot, who was a real, live presidential candidate, having won 18.9 percent of the 1992 vote. At the state and local levels, probably 20,000 persons somehow got their names on the ballot for legislative, executive, and judicial positions. Of the millions of Americans who could have tried, or could have been instigated, to be political candidates, only a minuscule percentage made it. Why and how did these 20,000+ candidates make it? How did they get by those “gatekeepers” who made these candidate-selection decisions? How do we go about doing this screening process in the United States? And is our recruitment process satisfactorily done?
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Notes
Lester Seligman, et al., Patterns of Recruitment: A State Chooses Its Law-Makers (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1974), 191.
Leon Epstein, Political Parties in the American Mold (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1986), 158–62.
Ibid., 160.
See Malcom E. Jewell and David M. Olson, Political Parties and Elections in American States (Chicago: Dorsey Press, 1988); L. Sandy Maisel et al., “The Naming of Candidates: Recruitment or Emergence?” in Maisel, ed., The Parties Respond (Boulder: Westview Press, 1990), ch. 7.
Austin Ranney in Herbert Jacob and Kenneth N. Vines, eds., Politics in the American States (Boston: Little, Brown, 1976), 72; V. O. Key, Jr., Politics, Parties and Pressure Groups (New York: Crowell, 1964), 378.
Gary C. Jacobson, “Congress: A Singular Continuity,” in Michael Nelson, ed., The Elections of 1988 (Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press, 1989), 132–33.
See Sandy Maisel, ed., The Parties Respond (Boulder: Westview Press, 1990), 147–49.
Among these early studies, see particularly David M. Olson, “The Electoral Relationship Between Congressmen and their District Parties,” paper presented at annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, DC, September 1977; Barbara Greenberg, “New York Congressmen and Local Party Organization,” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, 1972.
Leo Snowiss, “Congressional Recruitment and Representation,” American Political Science Review 60 (1966): 627–39.
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Eldersveld, S.J., Walton, H. (2000). Parties and Leadership Recruitment. In: Political Parties in American Society. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-11290-3_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-11290-3_9
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