Taking first things first, I’ll start with the word primary, which descends from the Latin primus, “first.” Primary, as a shortening of “primary election, is first recorded in 1861. In an election we “pick out” a candidate whom we wish to vote for. In Latin e means “out” and lectus “pick or choose.” Campaign is very much a fighting word. The Latin campus, “field,” is a clue that the first campaigns were conducted on battlefields. A military campaign is a series of operations mounted to achieve a particular wartime objective. A political campaign is an all-out effort to secure the election of a candidate to office. When he went to the Forum in Roman times, a candidate for office wore