_Committees._--The committee is a select body for carrying on the campaign and attending to such other matters as may be intrusted to it. The national committee is composed of one member from each state; the state committee, usually of delegates from the counties or legislative districts. The New York Republican state committee is composed of one delegate from each congressional district in the state, while the Democratic committee consists of one delegate from each of the fifty-one senatorial districts of the state. Similarly, the county committee is made up of delegates representing the political units into which the county is divided, towns, precincts, etc. Sometimes the county committee is a very large and representative body. The Republican committee of New York county is made up of about 700 delegates, each delegate representing 200 Republican voters in the county. In the cities, there is not only the general city committee, but also a local committee for each ward or precinct. These ward committees come into close relation with the voters, and the success of the party depends to a large degree upon their activity. =Primaries.=--As soon as political parties were definitely formed it became necessary to devise some sort of machinery for selecting the candidates which the party desired to put forward. In the beginning candidates for local offices were presented to the voters upon their own announcement or by a caucus (an informal meeting of the leading men of the party) or a primary (a mass meeting of the members of the party). In time the caucus, except as a means of selecting candidates for offices in legislative bodies, fell into disrepute, and the method of nomination by a convention composed of delegates representing the party became the accepted method. The delegates are chosen by the members of the party at an election called a primary, so called because it is the first or original meeting of the party voters in the process of choosing public officials.