J. Austin Ranney
According to political journalist Theodore H. White, it was Ranney who, in a Nov. 18, 1969, hearing designed to reform the delegate selection process of the Democratic Party, "set... in motion" the idea of quota set-asides, though Ranney "consistently ever since...has expressed his abhorrence of quotas."White attributes the quota system eventually adopted by the McGovern–Fraser Commission as "one of the major factors in the wrecking" of the campaign of George McGovern as the 1972 Democratic presidential candidate and the landslide re-election of Richard Nixon.Ranney was a longtime affiliate of political science honors society Pi Sigma Alpha.He was president of the society from 1976 to 1978, and also served on the executive council for the ten years prior.He created the Ranney Index, and is also noted for his work on preselection in British parliamentary elections (1965).