Strategic Decision-Making in Presidential Nominations: When and Why Party Elites Decide to Support a Candidate

Strategic Decision-Making in Presidential Nominations: When and Why Party Elites Decide to Support a Candidate
ISBN-10
1438449194
ISBN-13
9781438449197
Category
Political Science
Pages
218
Language
English
Published
2014-01-01
Publisher
SUNY Press
Author
Kenny J. Whitby

Description

Seeks to understand and explain the behavior of party elites during the 2008 Democratic Party presidential race. What is the dominant force in presidential nomination campaigns? Are nomination outcomes decided largely by the political party or by the candidates and their activities? In Strategic Decision-Making in Presidential Nominations, Kenny J. Whitby aims to provide some answers to these important questions, focusing on the closely contested 2008 race between Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. It was this race that spotlighted the role played by “superdelegates,” the unpledged party elites who were added to the nomination process in the 1980s. Whitby’s central argument is that superdelegates are strategic actors and their endorsements are a response to a variety of demographic, institutional, and campaign factors. While some weigh in early with an endorsement, many adopt a wait-and-see approach. Using a novel framework generally known as survival analysis, Whitby provides us with a method for understanding when and why party elites decide to chime in on their presidential nomination campaign.

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