Using the ethnographic data collected during the 2009 local elections in Turkey this paper revisits two largely neglected areas in the studies of democratization in general and Turkish politics in specific: (i) party-candidate recruitment and (ii) election campaigns. The analysis uses these two areas to assess Turkey's ruling party, Justice and Development Party’s (JDP) intra-party democracy and finally their implications on Turkey’s efforts to expand its liberal democracy. More specifically the analysis tackles the questions how do popular mass parties like the JDP recruit their candidates? And further, what are the selection mechanisms in place? What form of political culture do these mechanisms cultivate within the party and beyond? How do parties like the JDP balance their desire to institutionalize their organizations and gain the support of broader constituencies? Do parties’ electoral policies advance or hinder their efforts to advance democratic practices and how do they do so? The analysis shows that Turkey's experience yields different conclusions when it is placed under procedural and deliberative approaches to democracy. Among others the findings show devoid of inclusive deliberative mechanisms, the JDP treats its members’ responses as a collection of isolated expressions of intentions and preferences. Turkey's does not offer an exception in many electoral democracies individuals' active roles are trivialized by the prevalence of economic rationality in defining social issues over political as well as by the ruling parties' revulsion from sporadic political engagements in the electoral processes. the conclusions contend that while electoral processes empower citizens the absence of deliberative mechanisms debilitate democracies' deliberative capital.