Martin Van Buren

Before he was president, Van Buren built the 'Albany Regency' in New York and then the national coalition that elected Andrew Jackson in 1828: disciplined party organisation, partisan newspapers, patronage jobs for loyal workers and nominating conventions. He argued openly that permanent parties were good for democracy, a heretical view then. The mass party he designed raised turnout dramatically. It was also built on an alliance with Southern slaveholders that kept slavery off the national agenda.