Dannel Malloy Quotes

We don't win or lose elections because of [party] rules.

Parties perform, to some degree, at least three functions in a democratic government. They recruit candidates, mobilize voters, and assemble power within the formal government.

What the hell is a Republican? What the hell is a Democrat? I don't care. I've always urged people to make sure you vote for the right guy.

In presidential elections, I think people focus way too much on ideology.

Many people - especially those people who earn livings by convincing editors and bookers that rich and influential strangers consider their thoughts and opinions interesting - have ideas about who should or should not run for president.

Research has shown that the perceived style of leadership is by far the most important thing to most voters in evaluating officeholders and candidates.

I'm into politics - I'm interested in the election and how pissed off people get.

I don't think we'll win every election.

Outcome of these elections is not in doubt due to simple fact that there is only one candidate for each position…. You may be wondering why party propaganda machine attaches such importance to electoral campaign and surrounds it with such unparalleled pomp and circumstance.

In my years working in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, I had learned that those who seek the presidency are prepared to stop at almost nothing to get their party’s nomination.

Nobody who ever runs for President should be the leader of a party.

I have serious doubts about the value of debates in a presidential election. They tend to be a test of reaction time rather than a genuine exposition of the participants' philosophies and programs

People don't vote parties. They vote individuals.

In our form of democracy the expression of the popular will can be effected only through the instrumentality of political parties.

The general assumption of the democratic process is that you identify candidates who come closest to you in terms of values and positions. The problem is many voters are never given the kind of information they need to make the decision.

Another important consideration is the great mischief of unintermitted electioneering. When the highest dignity in the State is to be conferred by popular election once in every few years, the whole intervening time is spent in what is virtually a canvass. President, ministers, chiefs of parties, and their followers, are all electioneerers: the whole community is kept intent on the mere personalities of politics, and every public question is discussed and decided with less reference to its merits than to its expected bearing on the presidential election.

Candidates talk about issues that voters want to hear about.

The main question that is decided by an election in our country is, which political party shall have the privilege of dispensing the offices of Government?

Politics: a Trojan horse race

Voters deserve - and they indeed expect - a good debate on the issues.

Vibrant political parties are vital to the health of our democracy.

I believe that if the entire voting population of the United States could be taken in small groups on a personally conducted tour of even the neutral countries of Europe, 85 percent of them would vote next November for any presidential candidate of any party who could convincingly promise them a big navy and conscription.

Caucuses are different than primaries, and winner-take-all primaries are how Mitt Romney eventually took over Newt Gingrich in 2012 and why Rick Santorum left.

The main influence on voters should be a series of robust debates among the candidates. It's a free country, so this is a tough problem to solve, but I'd love to see an election season with zero political ads, and all voters had to decide based on watching four national debates over the two months leading to election day.

When Democrats concede the idea that some voters are not our voters, we shouldn't be surprised when those voters agree.