Issue group activists at the conventions

The rise of the new single issue groups has presented the Republican and Democratic parties with a novel challenge to their historic roles as broad-based coalition parties. Both parties now confront groups within their ranks that demand of party nominees a strict commitment to the position held by the group on a specified issue. We will examine the extent to which party delegates who are active in the new issue groups are distinguished from other delegates in their party commitment, issue positions, and ideological orientation. In short, have state party conventions been penetrated by new issue group activists, lacking any broader interest in or commitment to the party? We draw two conclusions from our analysis below: First, delegates in new issue groups are also active in other interest groups within their respective parties. This suggests that while delegates may belong to single issue groups, they may not have single issue political orientations. Second, delegates active in newer social issue groups can be distinguished from other delegates within their respective parties on certain measures of commitment, but nonetheless such delegates are clearly differentiated in their party orientation from delegates in the other party who are active in similar interest groups.