candidate skinning
n.— «Some felt that votes hinged on how many baked goods they bought or won through auction, and how many pretty girls they endowed. Sponsoring groups even had their contests on stage with the candidates sitting right there. Everyone would know which politicos would bid on a coconut cake and which would not. Also, as many as four rallies might be staged in one night, lasting for hours altogether. The events had become frenzied merry-go-rounds with politicians pondering their seemingly no-win schedules, speaking at one place and sending family to buy pie or place a donation at another. The phenomenon came to be called “candidate skinnings.”» —“Bring back the personal touch of county politics” by Nancy Callahan Tuscaloosa News (Alabama) Oct. 15, 2006. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
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