Inside This Issue:

• Overview: National Party 

Conventions . . . . . . . . . . page 1

• Memorable Moments in

Political Convention History:

The Evolution of National Party

Conventions . . . . . . . . . page 1

• Campaign Highlight: 

The Evolution of Political

Conventions: An Interview with

Nelson W. Polsby . . . . . page 5

FAST FACTS:

✔ An estimated 35,000 people will participate in the 2004 Democratic

National Convention, June 26-29, at

the Boston Fleet Center. In order to

transform the 9,600-seat sports arena

to a convention hall, the Democratic

National Convention Committee

required the following supplies:

• 4,000 miles of cable 

• 60 tons of steel 

• 25,000 square feet of office space 

• 120 temporary doors 

• 360 ft. of scaffolding inside 

• 50 tons of cooling equipment

• 2,000 chairs 

• 3,000 linear feet of drywall 

• 538 data lines 

• 177 cable hookups 

• 267 computers 

• 793 telephone lines

Election

FOCUS

July 14, 2004 U.S. Department of State ISSUE 1 • NO 14 

Since their beginnings in the early

nineteenth century, election-year 

conventions have been the occasion

for political parties to nominate their

presidential and vice-presidential 

candidates, formulate their positions

on the issues into a “platform,” and

elect national committees to run the

parties. In earlier times, when 

last-minute compromises were made

in “smoke-filled rooms,” real surprises

could emerge from conventions.

Today, according to Nelson Polsby, a

distinguished political scientist at the

University of California at Berkeley,

“National party conventions...ratify

what’s already been done in the

process well before the convention.

The role of the convention now is

entirely advertising for the nominee

Memorable Moments in Political

Convention History: The Evolution of

National Party Conventions

(continued on page 4)

(continued on page 2)

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National Party Conventions 

Nominating a U.S. President and Vice-President

In late July the Democratic Party will gather in Boston

to officially nominate Massachusetts Senator John Kerry as

its presidential candidate and North Carolina Senator John

Edwards as its vice-presidential nominee. In late August

Republicans will hold a similar event in New York City to

officially confirm incumbent George W. Bush as their 

candidate for president and Vice President Dick Cheney as

the vice-presidential candidate. In addition to nominating

presidential and vice-presidential candidates, the 

conventions will establish party positions in the platform. A

political convention formally launches a presidential 

campaign and functions as a quadrennial party meeting.

Traditionally, conventions served as a mechanism for 

Republican presidential nominee

George W. Bush and his wife

Laura are engulfed in balloons at

the close of the Republican

National Convention in

Philadelphia Thursday, Aug. 3,

2000. (AP Photo/Ed Reinke)

By Darlisa Crawford

Washington File Staff Writer
building consensus among party factions and convention delegates

determined who would become nominated candidates. After the election

reforms of the 1970s and 1980s, the

nominating conventions no longer

entailed party leaders deliberating over

candidates but involved delegates confirming their support of a candidate.

Today, party conventions attempt to

provide a definition of what the party

represents and how it will support the

electorate’s preferences. 

The federal government grants

$14.9 million to each of the two major

parties for convention expenses.

Campaign Finance Institute data 

concluded that both parties would

spend a total of $220 million on their

conventions this year.

Representing each of the 50 states

and the territories (the District of

Columbia, the Commonwealth of

Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam,

the Virgin Islands and Democrats

Abroad from 12 different countries),

4,353 delegates and 611 alternates will

attend the 2004 Democratic National

Convention, July 26 –29 in Boston,

Massachusetts. More than eighty 

percent of the delegates were chosen

from results of the vote from the 2004

Democratic presidential primaries and

caucuses. Delegates are pledged to

candidates in proportion to their 

success in the state primary or caucus.

As candidates dropped out of the race

and endorsed Kerry, they freed their

delegates to vote their consciences.

Because of the unity of the

Democratic Party, Kerry’s nomination

at the convention is likely to be 

unanimous. The remaining, unpledged,

ex-officio delegates are governors,

Democratic Senators, congressmen,

and officials of the Democratic

National Committee. The twelfth

amendment to the U.S. constitution

specifies that the president and 

vice-president must run for their

respective offices as a team. In the

past vice-presidential candidates were

not always selected before the 

convention nor identified until party

leaders chose the nominees at the 

convention. Over the last forty years,

the presidential nominee and 

vice-presidential nominee of a party

are increasingly identified before the

convention.

Democratic National Committee

Chairman Terry McAuliffe said,

“We’re going to have training sessions

every day, all day, which is something

different than we’ve ever done before.

Everybody’s going to leave this 

convention with an assignment: They

have to do something to help John

Kerry become president.”

The key speakers at the 

convention have already been

announced. Former President Bill

Clinton, former Vice President Gore

and former President Carter will speak

on the opening night. Teresa Heinz

Kerry, the wife of presumed nominee

John Kerry, Senator Ted Kennedy of

Massachusetts, Christie Vilsack of

Iowa and Governor Janet Napolitano

of Arizona will deliver speeches on

the second night. Ron Reagan, the

younger son of the late President

Ronald Reagan, will address the 

convention about the importance of

stem cell research, prompted in part

by his late father’s battle with

Alzheimer's disease. The convention’s

last night traditionally features the

presidential and vice-presidential

acceptance speeches. 

Representing 50 states and the 

territories (the District of Columbia,

the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico,

American Samoa, Guam and the

Virgin Islands), 2,509 delegates and

2,344 alternate delegates will attend

the 2004 Republican National

Convention, August 30 – September 2,

at Madison Square Garden in New

York City. Mayor Michael Bloomberg,

Arizona Senator John McCain and

New York’s former mayor, Rudolph

Giuliani will address the convention

the first evening. First Lady Laura

Bush, Secretary of Education Rob

Paige, and California Governor Arnold

Schwarzenegger deliver speeches on

the second night. Mrs. Lynne Cheney,

Vice President Dick Cheney, and

Senator Zell Miller will speak on

Wednesday evening. New York

Governor George Pataki and President

Bush will address the delegates on the

final night of the convention. 

Republican National Committee

Chairman Ed Gillespie said, “I know

that there’s not much suspense at conventions anymore, but any time an

individual becomes the nominee for

president of the United States of one

ELECTION FOCUS 2004

2 ELECTION FOCUS 2004

The U.S. Department of State is pleased to present its election coverage newsletter, Election Focus 2004. The 

newsletter will provide non-partisan coverage of the U.S. election process, featuring articles, interviews, public opinion

polls, and other information on the presidential primaries, debates, conventions and campaign activities of the major 

presidential candidates.

Election Focus 2004 is produced by the Democracy and Human Rights team in the Bureau of International Information

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THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE
of the two major parties in this 

country, it’s significant. And it should

be treated as such.”

The creation and adoption of the

party platform occurs prior to the formal nominations of the presidential

and vice-presidential candidate.

Convention resolutions became known

as a “platform” in 1852 when

Democratic National Convention delegates approved a “platform of

resolutions.” The first Republican platform in 1856 called for the prohibition

of the extension of slavery into the territories. Platform writing used to be

the exclusive domain of party leaders

at the national convention. Today,

however, the platform writing process

entails a Platform Committee and

Policy Council that gathers data on a

variety of topics from private organizations, Congress, universities,

government and private citizens.

According to the New York Times,

“party platforms carry no authority

beyond providing a kind of snapshot

of the leadership’s thinking and a distillation of its assessment of the

public’s mood.” Academic studies

have shown, however, that much of the

party platform is enacted in the public

policy of the party that wins the presidency.

Convention organizers will urge

cable channels, newspapers, radio and

the Internet to broadcast the conventions and bring their message to

potential voters. The Democrats will

feature a “talk show row,” an area designated for radio interviews and the

first convention “blog”, an interactive

online journal. In addition, Internet

writers, known as bloggers, will join

journalists and broadcasters in the designated press section for the first time.

The Internet has become a new media

source for campaign news and convention coverage. The Pew Research

Center for People and the Press surmised, “The Internet, a relatively

minor source for campaign news in

2000, is now on par with such traditional outlets as public-television

broadcasts, Sunday-morning news

programs, and the weekly news magazines.”

Although the media still play an

important role in modern national

conventions, broadcast networks have

decreased campaign coverage from

100 prime-time hours in 1976 to 23

hours in 2000 due to the early selection of presidential nominees,

eliminating much of the suspense of

earlier conventions. Nielsen Media

Research data reported that CNN

secured approximately 1.5 million

viewers each evening of the 2000 conventions live coverage while ABC

attracted an estimated 5.7 million

nightly. 

Convention organizers are reaching out to younger audiences and

potential voters this year. The

Republican Party and the Democratic

Party are sponsoring an essay competition with MTV for contestants 18 to

24 years old. The contest will feature

two winners, one speaker at each convention. ■

The official Web site for the

Republican Party’s convention is

www.gopconvention.com

The official Web site for the

Democratic Party’s convention is

www.dems2004.org 

ELECTION FOCUS 2004

WWW.USEMBASSY.DE/USA 3

“I know that there’s not

much suspense at conventions anymore, but any time

an individual becomes the

nominee for president of the

United States of one of the

two major parties in this

country, it’s significant. And

it should be treated as such.”

— Republican National Committee

Chairman Ed Gillespie
ELECTION FOCUS 2004

4 ELECTION FOCUS 2004

and the party.” Broad media coverage,

though somewhat reduced in recent

years, provides an ideal vehicle for

each party to present its candidates

and platform to the nation, and both

parties will use the opportunity to

energize their voters in the run-up to

Election Day in November.

Political party conventions are a

rich part of American political culture.

Here are some interesting facts about

their history.

The First National Party

Convention 

The Anti-Masonic Party held the

first national party convention in 1831

in Baltimore, Maryland. It nominated

William Wirt as its presidential candidate and Amos Ellmaker as its

vice-presidential candidate. The other

parties soon emulated the AntiMasons in using conventions to

nominate their presidential candidates.

The Democratic Party, known as

Republican Delegates from Several

States, held its first convention in

Baltimore in 1832 and re-nominated

President Andrew Jackson. All the

states, except Missouri, sent delegates

to the convention for the purpose of

choosing a vice-presidential candidate.

The re-nomination of Jackson was

taken for granted. The National

Republicans also held their convention

in Baltimore in 1832 and they nominated Henry Clay. 

Television Campaigns and

Conventions 

Televised debates among the

major candidates running for the presidency of the United States have been

a key factor influencing public opinion

in presidential races for decades. The

airtime for the conventions and the

debates is provided free of charge by

the television networks as a public

service. The first political convention

to be televised was the Republican

National Convention in June 1940 in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania when

Wendell L. Willkie was nominated for

president. The telecast was made by

station W2XBS of the National

Broadcasting Company, located in

New York City. The first color telecast

was the Republican National

Convention in Miami Beach, Florida

in August 1968; both NBC and the

Columbia Broadcasting System broadcast the proceedings. The first

televised campaign spots in a presidential campaign were aired in 1952.

In a series of commercials, Dwight

Eisenhower, the Republican candidate

for president, answered questions from

average citizens. These spots were

titled "Eisenhower Answers America"

and featured dramatic footage of "the

Man from Abilene" interacting with

voters. (Eisenhower was from Abilene,

Kansas.) 

Chicago, 1968 

Probably the most disruptive

national convention was the 1968

Democratic convention in Chicago,

Illinois. The event was a public relations disaster for the Democratic Party,

which was shaken by a series of shattering events that year. The bitter

anti-Vietnam protests, the withdrawal

of President Lyndon Johnson from the

1968 presidential race, the assassinations of Reverend Martin Luther King

Jr. in April, and of Senator Robert F.

Kennedy (D-N.Y.) in June on the night

of his California primary victory

formed the backdrop to the Chicago

convention. Outside the hall, thousands of anti-war protestors clashed

with police. Inside, tempers exploded

over issues as diverse as the selection

of VicePresident Hubert Humphrey as

presidential nominee (he had not

entered a single presidential primary),

and the vocal demands of supporters

of Senator Eugene McCarthy (DMinn.), the anti-Vietnam war

candidate. The McCarthyites’ loud

complaints generated sympathy among

several delegations. Ironically, the

anti-Vietnam War protest movement

was partially responsible for the rapid

increase in the percentage of first-time

participants at national conventions. In

1972, for example, 83 percent of the

Democratic delegates and 76 percent

of the Republican delegates were

attending their first convention that

year. 

Women and Minorities

Victoria Claflin Woodhull was the

first woman presidential candidate.

The National Radical Reformers, a

group that seceded from the National

Woman Suffrage Association, nominated her at a convention held in May

1872 at Apollo Hall, New York City.

Ten years later, at the Republican

National Convention in Cincinnati,

Sara Andrews Spencer made a speech

against the disfranchisement of

women. She was the first woman to

address a national political convention.

Charlotte A. Bass was the first and

only African American woman nominated to be vice-president. She was

nominated by the Progressive Party at

its convention in the International

Amphitheatre in Chicago in 1952.

New York Congresswoman Shirley

Chisholm was the first African

American woman to run for the presidency at the 1972 Democratic

nominating convention in Miami,

(continued from page 1)

Memorable Moments in

Political Convention History:

The Evolution of National

Party Conventions
In a recent interview, Nelson W.

Polsby, Heller Professor of Political

Science at the University of California,

Berkeley spoke with Washington File

staff writer Darlisa Crawford about

how political conventions have evolved

over the course of U.S. history and the

role they play in the 2004 election.

Polsby is a distinguished political 

scientist and the author or co-author of

14 books on American politics.

Q: What was the role of 

political conventions in the

past and how has it

changed? What is the 

relevance of political 

conventions today?

Polsby: It’s changed a lot. National

party conventions used to pick the

nominee and now at most, they ratify

what’s already been done in the

process well before the convention. So

the role of the convention now is

entirely advertising for the nominee

and for the party. It’s an advertising

medium. It is not a real decision making organization anymore.

Q: Have the mechanics of

conventions—how candidates are selected and how

platforms are presented—

changed?

Polsby: Not much. No. The mechanics are roughly the same, but the

significance is completely different now.

Florida. She assembled 151 delegate

votes on the first ballot. Later, in 1988

and 1992 Dr. Leonora B. Fulani was

the first woman and first African

American to appear on the presidential

ballot in all 50 states as a National

Alliance Party candidate. She qualified for two million dollars in Federal

matching funds. The first and only

female vice-presidential candidate

from a major political party was

Geraldine Ferraro, who was chosen by

Democratic presidential nominee

Walter Mondale at the Democratic

National Convention in San Francisco

in 1984. 

Frederick Douglass was the first

African American at a national convention (National Loyalists' Loyal Union

Convention, Philadelphia, September

1866) nominated as a vice-presidential

candidate. Douglass was also the first

African American to be nominated for

president when he received one vote at

the 1888 Republican National

Convention. The first national political

convention to propose African

Americans for the offices of president

and vice-president was at the

Democratic convention in Chicago,

1968. The Reverend Channing Emery

Phillips of Washington, D.C. received

67.5 of the 2,622 votes cast for the

presidential nomination. 

Same City Conventions

The first time that the major parties held their nominating conventions

in the same city occurred in 1832

when the Democrats and the National

Republicans (soon to be Whigs) held

their conventions in Baltimore.

Baltimore was also the location in

1844 for the Whigs (later the

Republicans) and the Democrats.

Since 1948, both parties have had their

conventions in the same city only three

times: Philadelphia (1948), Chicago

(1952), and Miami Beach (1972).

Since then, the practice has been that

each party chooses a different city. For

the 2004 elections, the Democrats will

hold their convention in July in

Boston, one month before the

Republicans meet in New York City.

However, the most popular convention

city is Chicago, which has hosted

twenty-five national conventions

(1860-1868, 1880-1896, 1904-1920,

1932, 1940-1944, 1952-1960, 1968,

and 1996). ■

ELECTION FOCUS 2004

WWW.USEMBASSY.DE/USA 5

The Evolution of Political Conventions:

An Interview with Nelson W. Polsby

Campaign★★Highlight

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the interviewee and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Government.
Q: How has television

changed political 

conventions over the years?

Polsby: The real coverage of 

television started in 1952. It’s changed

enormously, of course, because there

used to be something to cover and there

isn’t anymore. So, the television 

networks are cutting way back on what

they show, simply because they realize

that there is no significance to what is

going on except as advertising.

Q: World Wide Web coverage

of conventions started in

2000. Will cyber-coverage

have any impact on the 

political conventions in

2004?

Polsby: I assume not. No. I don’t

see how they could have an impact on

the conventions. It is simply a different

set of channels through which 

advertising can proceed. In that sense,

it is very important. I think the Internet

and that kind of stuff is more and more

important in mobilizing voters and 

raising money. So, the Internet is very

important, but it won’t have any impact

on the convention. However, the 

convention may have some impact on

it.

Q: According to Campaign

Finance Institute analysis,

private donations rose 208

percent in 2000 and are projected to rise another 297

percent in 2004. Can you

please comment on the role

of private donations in 

relation to political 

conventions?

Polsby: They don’t have much to do

with political conventions. They do

have a lot to do with making it possible

to spread the message around the

respective candidates. The population

of the country grows. Expenses go up

all the time. Of course, you have to

spend more money to stand still.

Political money is being mobilized

somewhat more efficiently today than it

was true a few years ago. Mainly, I

think because of the Internet.

Q: What do you think political

conventions will look like in

the future?

Polsby: They have been on a 

declining curve for some time. I think

that they will probably gently decline

even more. They are just advertising.

That is all they are. Of course, they

might be interesting, if and only if,

intra-party squabbling breaks out and

some faction within a political party

attempts to embarrass the nominee.

That’s interesting and reportable news

and people will be on top of that, but

other than that, I don’t think the future

holds much for national party 

conventions, unless they change the

rules of nomination, which I think is

unlikely in the near term. ■

6 ELECTION FOCUS 2004

ELECTION FOCUS 2004

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the interviewee and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Government.