Greetings my ideological brothers and sisters from across the great pond. Tetracide here, doing the world a favor and presenting the mechanics and break down of the upcoming American midterm elections. I was invited to break down the November 7th elections here in the states, so I thought I’d first make a post talking about the election and reelection processes. For those who already know what the difference between a primary election and an election, or “red” and “blue” in American political culture, you may want to skip this post as I catch up those who may not be up to speed.

Basic Election Info
Only two of America’s three branches of government are elected into office by a vote of the people. Those branches include the legislature (Congress) and the executive (the Presidency). The President has four year terms ending on an even year. Example: George W. Bush was first elected in 2000, then reelected in 2004. The next Presidential race will be in 2008. Congress gets a little more complicated. In the House of Representatives, member’s have two year terms ending on even years. Example: Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi ran a campaign in 2000, 2002, 2004, and has run one this year as well. In the Senate, for reasons I won’t get into depth with, 1/3 of all 100 senators are up for reelection on even years. Example: Senator Dianne Feinstein was up for reelection this year. In 2008, another 1/3 of the Senate will be up for reelection, and the remaining 1/3 of senators like Barack Obama who were elected in 2004 will be up for reelection in 2010.

Primary Elections
Now that we understand when people are elected, allow me explain the “how.” In any partisan election here in the states, there are what we call primary elections. As a continuing example, I’m going to use the 2004 Presidential campaign. Prior to the 2004 November Presidential election, the Democrats needed to pick a candidate to support. All the Democrats that want to run for President run a primary campaign to win the votes of delegates in each of the 50 states.

Without totally boiling your brain with the details, just know that there were about 4,300 Democratic delegates, and each candidate campaigned in each state, attempting to win the vote of those delegates. Then, the people vote for the delegates who share their choice for the Presidential candidate. Example: in the 2004 primary, the people in California had four options: John Jerry, John Edwards, Howard Dean, or Dennis Kucinich. A majority of the people voted for the 315 delegates that had sided with John Kerry, thus, Senator Kerry “carried” California. Kerry carried all but three states (North & South Carolina, and Oklahoma). John Kerry won the Democratic Primary and ran for President officially endorsed by the Democratic National Convention.

Primaries also exist in senatorial races. The most popular Democratic Primary was the race between radical liberal Ned Lamont versus centrist Joe Lieberman. Lieberman attempted to run as a Democrat, only his support for the Iraq war has left him without much of a Democratic base. He lost the Democratic primary in Connecticut, then ran as an Independent and is now soaring in the polls. The 2006 party primaries are over, but the real elections fun starts and ends on November 7th.

I’ll park it here. Either later today, or tomorrow, I will be indulging into the real political atmosphere here in the States and give all of you the breakdown of where the elections stand, if Conservatism is going to remain in the majority, or if liberalism will conquer.

Thanks for reading,
Tetracide

Links of Interest
The 2004 Democratic Primary Results (CNN.com)
The Delegate Selection Process (CNN.com)