ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the roles of parties and elections at the state and local level because they are central to a comprehensive understanding of campaign and party finance in the United States. United States electoral activities with which the majority of readers are familiar are those of candidates and party organizations involved in federal elections. In the majority of cases in US general elections, there is only one candidate per party per office on the ballot, each candidate must reside in the district, and to win, a candidate need get only a plurality of the votes cast for that particular office. There is even greater variation in campaign activities and techniques across state and local elections than there is in the status and function of party organizations. The problems of data availability, collection and analysis are compounded many fold when the inquiry shifts to local elections.
