In other States, the Central Committee and the various
candidates for state office form a party council and frame the
platform. Oregon, in 1901, tried a novel method of providing
platforms by referendum. But the courts declared the law
unconstitutional. So Oregon now permits each candidate to write
his own platform in not over one hundred words and file it with
his nominating petition, and to present a statement of not over
twelve words to be printed on the ballot.
The convention system provided many opportunities for the
manipulator and was inherently imperfect for nominating more than
one or two candidates for office. It has survived as the method
of nominating candidates for President of the United States
because it is adapted to the wide geographical range of the
nation and because in the national convention only a President
and a Vice-President are nominated. In state and county
conventions, where often candidates for a dozen or more offices
are to be nominated, it was often subject to demoralizing
bartering.
The larger the number of nominations to be made, the more
complete was the jobbery, and this was the death warrant of the
local convention. These evils were recognized as early as June
20, 1860, when the Republican county convention of Crawford
County, Pennsylvania, adopted the following resolutions:
"Whereas, in nominating candidates for the several county
offices, it clearly is, or ought to be, the object to arrive as
nearly as possible at the wishes of the majority, or at least a
plurality of the Republican voters; and
Whereas the present system of nominating by delegates, who
virtually represent territory rather than votes, and who almost
necessarily are wholly unacquainted with the wishes and feelings
of their constituents in regard to various candidates for office,
is undemocratic, because the people have no voice in it, and
objectionable, because men are often placed in nomination because
of their location who are decidedly unpopular, even in their own
districts, and because it affords too great an opportunity for
scheming and designing men to accomplish their own purposes;
therefore
Resolved, that we are in favor of submitting nominations directly
to the people--the Republican voters--and that delegate
conventions for nominating county officers be abolished, and we
hereby request and instruct the county committee to issue their
call in 1861, in accordance with the spirit of this resolution.
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