By Bob Benenson, CQ Politics Editor

When it comes to electing the president, the modern campaign era has its roots 95 years ago when North Dakota held the first presidential primary. CQ Politics looks back and charts for you, election by election, how this process grew over the last century into the long and sprawling campaigns that have become part of the political landscape. This fourth in a series covers 1988.

The front-loading of the presidential nominating process became a permanent feature with the 1988 campaign. South Dakota, which normally held its primary in June, wedged in on Feb. 23, just a week after New Hampshire. But the much bigger development came two weeks later, when an unprecedented 16 states crowded in on March 8 — a phenomenon that produced the label of “Super Tuesday.”

Though a desire for a slice of the primary publicity pie was one reason for the rush to the front of the calendar, a strategic imperative on the Democratic side also drove a number of Southern states — which held most of the Super Tuesday contests — to join together on that single day. A number of moderate and conservative Democrats, heavily concentrated in that region, contended that Walter F. Mondale’s electoral debacle in 1984 was largely the result of his image as an old-school liberal who was beholden to organized labor and other Democratic-allied interest groups, and they developed the Super Tuesday concept to try to give the South a greater voice in the process and steer the party toward the center.

The plan failed. Two candidates thought to have some centrist appeal had been forced out of the running early: Gary Hart, by then a former senator, because of allegations of an extramarital affair, and Delaware Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. , following allegations that he had plagiarized part of a campaign speech. Tennessee’s Al Gore, then a 39-year-old first-term senator, sought to position himself as the candidate of the South, but failed to catch on sufficiently with voters. And the Southern states on Super Tuesday provided a variety of outcomes that enabled liberal Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis to maintain the front-runner status he had gained in the New Hampshire primary Feb. 16 with a 36 percent to 20 percent win over Missouri Rep. Richard A. Gephardt, who had won the Feb. 8 caucuses in Iowa with an unconvincing 31 percent to 27 percent for Illinois Sen. Paul Simon and 22 percent for Dukakis.

Rather than provide a more conservative alternative, Super Tuesday left the most liberal contender — Jesse Jackson — as the more enduring competitor to Dukakis in his ultimately successful drive to clinch the nomination long before the convention. Jackson’s strong support among black voters who made up a substantial share of the Democratic primary base in most Southern states enabled him to finish first in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Virginia. Gore did dominate his home state of Tennessee and also led the field in Arkansas, Kentucky, North Carolina and Oklahoma, but it was far from the sweeping regional victory he needed to sustain his campaign.

Dukakis, meanwhile, scored a couple of Southern victories himself, in Florida and Texas, easily outran Jackson in Maryland and dominated Massachusetts and Rhode Island on his New England home turf.

After a “favorite son” victory for Simon in Illinois, Dukakis swept the remaining 14 primaries, with his only loss to Jackson coming May 3 in the District of Columbia contest. But a Massachusetts issue that Gore raised obliquely during his unsuccessful campaign for the New York primary April 19 would later blow up into a damaging problem for Dukakis — and the most controversial element of the 1988 campaign. Gore criticized a prison furlough program in Massachusetts under which some inmates had committed crimes while on leave, but did not single out any individual incidents. The policy was later personified by the campaign of Vice President Geoge Bush, who early on had claimed the Republican nomination to succeed Reagan; led by consultant Lee Atwater — who had inspired a mix of grudging respect and loathing for his negative campaign tactics — the Bush camp sought rhetorically to tie Dukakis to Willie Horton, a Massachusetts inmate who had fled while on a furlough and raped a woman after beating and stabbing her fiance.

Democrats accused Republicans of trying to stoke racial fears, especially after an independent group with close ties to the Republican Party ran the since-famous “Willie Horton” ad — which included a glowering mug shot of the felon, who is black. But the issue blunted Dukakis’ efforts to escape the “liberal” label and run on his competence as a governor whose tenure coincided with a state economic comeback that had been touted as the “Massachusetts Miracle.” Bush won the general election easily: Though his 53 percent to 46 percent win over Dukakis was short of a popular vote landslide, Bush won the electoral votes of 40 states.

There had been a moment of uncertainty about Bush’s prospects at the beginning of the Republican nominating campaign. Though the heir apparent after eight years as Reagan’s vice president, Bush drew several competitors. Chief among them was Bob Dole of Kansas, the longtime Senate Republican leader and the 1976 vice presidential nominee on Ford’s ticket. Bush expected serious competition from Dole in Iowa, a farm state with similarities to his home base. But when the caucus results came in, Bush had only 19 percent, trailing not only Dole (the winner with 37 percent) but also the upstart campaign of religious broadcaster Pat Robertson (25 percent).

With the New Hampshire primary just eight days away, Bush had little time to regain his footing, but he did, in a campaign sprint that featured a preview of Atwater’s hard-hitting tactics. While Bush worked to shed his patrician image with events that included a brief stint driving an 18-wheeler truck, his campaign ran an intensive flight of TV ads in which Dole was portrayed as amenable to tax increases. Bush’s win, by 38 percent to 28 percent, was hardly dominating for the presumed front-runner, but Dole set back his own campaign on primary night. Interviewed simultaneously with Bush on a TV news show, Dole was asked if he had anything to say to the winner; he replied, “Tell him to stop lying about my record.” The incident made some view him as a sore loser, and revived a reputation for “meanness” with which he had long been burdened.

After easily outrunning Dole, Robertson and others in the South Carolina primary March 5, Bush quickly became the first big beneficiary of primary front-loading. He swept all 16 primaries three days later on Super Tuesday, effectively clinching the Republican nomination.

• Part One: 1912-64

• Part Two: 1968-72

• Part Three: 1976-84

• Part Five: 1992

• Part Six: 1996

• Part Seven: 2000

• Part Eight: 2004