Picking the president.

• Author: Warnock, Kae
• Position: Democratic politics in the US

At the turn of the 20th century, progressives, populists and reformers were fed up with corruption and with the selection of candidates by the `bosses' of big business. They wanted a government chosen by the people and believed the primary election system was one of the ways to return power to the people. But there was no system in place for a national primary for presidential candidates. So they created state primaries to choose delegates to party conventions and to register voters' preference for particular party candidates.

Florida enacted the first presidential primary law in 1901. The law gave political parties the option of holding primaries to choose delegates to national conventions, but it did not provide a method for indicating presidential preference. Several other states followed suit in the early 1900s, yet none created a preferential vote for president until Oregon passed a referendum to establish a presidential preference primary in 1910. Oregon's law bound delegates to support the winner of the preference primary. By 1916, 26 states had enacted either presidential primary laws for the selection of delegates to national conventions, or presidential preference, or some combination of the two.

In the 1930s, interest in presidential primaries began to cool. By 1935, eight states had repealed their presidential primary laws. The lack of interest is usually attributed to the preoccupation of the country with the Depression and World War 11. And primaries were expensive for both the states and the candidates.

After World War II, the appeal of presidential primaries started to rise again, mostly due to the participation of candidates who might not ordinarily be their party's choice, but who had strong aspirations for the presidence. Primaries were a way to gain support without the backing of a party, and candidates who ran well in primary states could have more clout in caucus states. By 1976, presidential preference primaries were held in 26 states. A record 37 primaries were held in 1980. Critics complained about the length of the primary season, which took nearly twice as long as the general election campaign and cost candidates more money.

After the 1980 Reagan landslide, Democrats modified the nominating rules to bring the process back into the hands of party leaders. This resulted in more Democratic caucuses and fewer Democratic primaries by 1984. Within the Democratic party though, there was disagreement as to how much...