The Red and Black

Issue date: 4/18/08 Section: News

Media Credit: JON KIM UCLA political scientist John Zaller speaks about presidential nominations and political parties at the 2008 Parthemos Lecture. [Click to enlarge]

Mark Warner, the former governor of Virginia, may have been a better Democratic presidential nominee than Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama in the 2008 election, a professor said Thursday.

Americans may never know, however, because Warner dropped out of the election in October 2006.

In a discussion called "Party Insiders and Presidential Nominations from McGovern to McCain," John Zaller, a professor of American politics, public opinion and statistical methods at the University of California at Los Angeles, argued party insiders, not candidates, control the outcomes of elections.

"Warner looked like he could have had a good shot at candidacy," Zaller said. But, most Americans already assumed the candidate would either be Clinton or Obama, he said.

In a book Zaller and his colleagues recently completed entitled, "The Party Decides: Presidential Nominations Before and After Reform," he refers to the McGovern-Fraser reforms of 1972, which he said weakened the roles of parties in presidential nominations.

But, he said, the death of political parties has been greatly exaggerated.

He said advantages of powerful parties include maintaining a two-party competition and avoiding a "free-for-all" election.

But, strong political parties can limit democracy and benefit insiders, he said.

Zaller referred to an incident during the 2000 presidential election when George W. Bush refused to have a litmus test on the issue of abortion.

Bush won the election with pro-life supporters, and he later appointed two Supreme Court justices who were in support of the pro-life cause, Zaller said.

"I believe he privately made the promise [to the pro-choice groups]," Zaller said.

Zaller said this is just one of many examples of special interest groups forming coalitions to help politicians.

"A party is a vehicle to get what [special interest groups] care about," he said.

Zaller referred to John Aldrich, who wrote political parties are crucial in maintaining a brand name of a party and passing that brand to candidates.

Zaller said although politicians crave attention and like to claim credit for ideas, parties and special interest groups remain more behind-the-scenes and discuss their issues privately within themselves.

"Parties are a vehicle by which intense policy demanders get their points across," Zaller said. "Parties will do what they have to, but they will not do more than they have to."

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