The party who does not have a 'the' candidate in office, incumbent means that that parties candidate already holds the office.
The incumbent is the current office holder, the "challanger' is the person running against the incumbent
opponent
Every party that has had incumbent presidents in office has renominated at least one of them except the Whig Party.
the incumbent party in power
No, the Democratic Convention will be second in 2012 because they will be the incumbent party in 2012. The incumbent party ALWAYS has their national convention second.
The party that controls a particular office before and during an election.
party list reperesentaive is a party that an incumbent candidiate is representing
In an election year, it is sometimes called the incumbent party.
An incumbent is someone already in a position or job. The doctor that you go to see is the incumbent, as opposed to a doctor you have not been to before. A doctor applying for an open position at a clinic would be a candidate.
If an incumbent president is willing and qualified to run for reelection, his party does not contest his nomination, most likely because of the message that would be interpreted if the party does not support its incumbent president. However, that was not always the case. Before the Civil War, several incumbent presidents, including Franklin Pierce in 1856, sought but did not receive their parties' nominations for president.
The opposite of the GOP party (Republicans) is the Democratic party.
I can't find one antonym for the noun party. I guess the opposite of party is no party.