The 2000 election started with many candidates. Of course there was the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, but there where also many third party candidates with ballot status. Their was a Constitution Party, Liberation Party, Natural Law Party, Prohibition Party, Reform Party and many others. The purpose of all these third parties was to influence the major parties on issues they may be ignoring or forgetting. These third parties usually focus their entire campaign on one issue.
Usually a major party will take an idea from these small parties and the small parties have achieved their goal. There is usually one smaller party that will advance from the primaries and become a real candidate in the presidential election. “The primaries are used in over half of the state’s to choose the national party conventions. Each candidate who enters the election lists a slate of delegates who have promised to support the candidate at the convention. Party members show their choice for the presidential nomination by voting for the slate of delegates committed two that candidate. Primaries that select about two-thirds of the delegates are held the first six months of presidential election years” (Robert Agranoff, “Primary Elections”) In the democratic primaries you need 2, 170 delegates to win and 434 delegates left to be allocated.
Bradley had 425 and Gore had 30, 470. In the Republican Party primaries you need 1, 034 delegates to win and at 542 the left to be allocated. Bush had 1, 288, Keyes had 2, McCain had 233 and 1 was uncommitted. Once the primaries were over we knew it was all about Al Gore and George W.
Bush, with Ralph Nader running independently. “In the 1940’s about 85 percent of U. S voters reported a loyalty to one of the 2 major parties. Today only about half the voters described themselves as democrats all or republicans. Also, many people vote for candidates of more than one party. These changes show that many citizens vote on the basis of candidates and issues rather than for a party.” (Robert Agranoff “Election Campaign”) There are many issues that go into running for president.
The most important is the . The way to get a voter turnout in your favor is to have good campaigns, good platforms, and do well in the debates. In the debates many issues came up and showed where the candidate stand on certain issues. One very important issue while running is campaign financing. Campaign funds are needed to pay for personnel, advertisers, travel and other need. The main source of funds are personal solicitations, appeals by mail, fund raisers and matching funds.
There are many laws about campaign financing that are often broken and the candidates have their own ideas. “Al Gore supported public financing of congressional and presidential campaigns through his 7 billion dollar Democracy Endowment Fund.” (CNN) Bush opposed publicly financed congressional and presidential campaigns. Both candidates supported a ban on soft money donations to political parties however Bush did not support the ban for individuals. Bush also wants to increase the campaign contribution limit to adjust for inflation, Gore opposed any increase however supported free air time for political candidates in the final 30 days of campaign and the requiring television stations that air issue adds to provide free rebuttal airtime to candidates.
Gore and Bush support increased disclosure of lobbying activities, but opposed a ban on “issue” ads by independent parties. Gore would require independent parties to disclose donor lists while Bush supports the right of groups to air them. The financial activity of presidential Campaigns is: Candidate Receipts Disbursements Cash on Hand Bush 57, 702, 961 19, 977, 473 37, 726, 100 McCain 9, 418, 884 7, 302, 307 2, 109, 433 Gore 24, 878, 638 14, 556, 332 10, 332, 305 Bradley 19, 274, 768 8, 573, 001 10, 701, 776 Other 1, 589, 543 1, 197, 669 0 Republicans 114, 649, 490 70, 789, 473 43, 587, 241 Democrats 45, 567, 204 24, 532, 913 21, 034, 290 Other 1, 589, 543 1, 197, 669 0 Total 105, 261, 217 49, 524, 789 56, 283, 358 (Copyright Federal Election Commission) (Time Magazine) Other important issues are abortion, which Gore been supported and Bush opposed. Both candidates had similar ideas on agriculture with a few price and shipping disagreements.
Their views on civil rights were very different. Bush did not support any issues concerning the rights of homosexuals. Gore supported affirmative action and homosexual issues except when they interfered with religion. Gore the supports lifting of the ban on gays in the military, which is the only defense issue, opposed by Bush. The candidates had different defense ideas but this was the only idea opposed by the other candidate. Both Bush and Gore promised a balanced budget and tax cuts.
Each candidate has there own plans on tax cuts. Gore estimates that he could eliminate the national debt by 2012 while Bush’s plan would take until 2016. On Education both candidates had different plans to fix similar problems. A voter would have to decide if they are worried more about the teachers, students, or environment and facilities. Energy is an important and upcoming issue. Bush did not seem very worried about Energy because he only proposed one plan.
Gore opposed oil and gas exploration in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge and supported many other ideas. Bush supports exploration and opposed tapping into the Petroleum Reserve except in extreme circumstances. On Environment issues the parties propose opposite plans. Healthcare and Social Security brought up many plans and promises. Both parties proposed different methods of saving money and helping those in need. These issues reflect on each candidates political part platforms.
The republican party platform was said to “reflect the views of countless Americans all across this country who believe in prosperity with a purpose – who believe in renewing America’s purpose together. This platform makes clear that we are the party of ideas we are the party that follows its bold words with bold deeds.” (Washington Post, “Party Platforms”) The Republican Party platform basically stated that they were committed to: -Saving strengthening Social Security. -Rebuilding the American military and returning to a foreign policy of strength and purpose and a renewed commitment to our allies. -Tax reforms that will sustain our nation’s prosperity and reflect its decency. -Aiding and encouraging the work of charitable and faith-based organizations. -A new approach to welcoming society-Following the original ideas of our party that from freedom comes opportunity; from opportunity come growth; and from growth comes progress and prosperity.
-To give a purpose to our plenty and apply new principles to new challenges. The Democratic Party platform was said to be a “people’s platform for a people’s party.” (All Politics. com) If one theme runs through this 2000 Democratic platform, it is this: If America is to secure prosperity, progress, peace and security for all, we cannot afford to go back. We must move forward together and we must not leave anyone behind.” (Washington Post, “Party Platforms”) The Democratic Party platform basically stated that they were committed to: -Secure Prosperity. -Continue to work close with other nations, as well as non-governmental organizations to achieve goals. -Pay down the debt.
-Offer the right kind of tax cuts. -Use prosperity to secure Social Security and Medicare. -Continue to reinvent government so that it can work better and cost less. -Reinforce the basic American Bargain of requiring and rewarding hard work and providing Americans with opportunities to be involved. All of these major and minor issues influenced the voters to vote for one of the candidates.
The Issues have become the most important part in making a decision to vote. Voters choose who they want to run their country based on their beliefs and their leaders promises. These issues continue to become more and more important every election year. The 2000 election was very close. Since many of the ideas and views of Al Gore and George W. Bush were so original and good the race was extremely close.
The votes were so close that they had problems declaring a winner. The final results named George W. Bush our forty-third president. The voter turnout was as follows: 270 electoral votes needed to win Candidate Electoral Popular Percent George W. Bush-R 271 50, 456, 169 48 Al Gore-D 267 50, 996, 116 48 Ralph Nader-Grn 0 2, 831, 066 3 Pat Buchanan-Ref 0 447, 789 0 (CNN).