ruby on rails - Self Joins and Factory Girl -

i'm working on website functions kickstarter political candidates. users can nominate candidates, , can pledge vote candidate, or contribute funds. i'm trying define self join candidate belongs user, want user nominator if they've nominated candidate (like creator creating project on kickstarter). think i've got syntax correct, keep getting errors when try seed database.

my models:

class user < activerecord::base     has_many :pledges     has_many :candidates, through: :pledges      has_many :contributions     has_many :candidates, through: :contributions end  class candidate < activerecord::base     belongs_to :nominator, class_name: "user", foreign_key: "nominator_id"      has_many :pledges     has_many :users, through: :pledges      has_many :contributions     has_many :users, through: :contributions end  class pledge < activerecord::base     belongs_to :user     belongs_to :candidate end  class contribution < activerecord::base   belongs_to :candidate   belongs_to :user end 

below database schema file, minus devise stuff , join tables

activerecord::schema.define(version: 20150714232652)    # these extensions must enabled in order support database   enable_extension "plpgsql"    create_table "candidates", force: :cascade |t|     t.string   "name"     t.string   "affiliation"     t.text     "platform"     t.datetime "created_at",   null: false     t.datetime "updated_at",   null: false     t.integer  "nominator_id"   end    add_index "candidates", ["nominator_id"], name: "index_candidates_on_nominator_id", using: :btree    create_table "users", force: :cascade |t|     t.string   "name"     t.datetime "created_at",                          null: false     t.datetime "updated_at",                          null: false     t.string   "email",                  default: "", null: false   end    add_index "users", ["email"], name: "index_users_on_email", unique: true, using: :btree    add_foreign_key "contributions", "candidates"   add_foreign_key "contributions", "users"   add_foreign_key "pledges", "candidates"   add_foreign_key "pledges", "users" end 

here factories user , candidate:

factorygirl.define   factory :user     name faker::name.name     email faker::internet.safe_email     password faker::internet.password   end end  factorygirl.define   factory :candidate     name faker::name.name     affiliation faker::team.name     platform faker::company.catch_phrase     association :nominator, factory: user   end end 

the error keep getting is

rake aborted! nomethoderror: undefined method `name' :candidate:symbol

and has self join , association in candidates factory. error disappears when delete line. glaring errors or suggestions?

the error missing colon before user in factory builder on association line:

factorygirl.define   factory :candidate     name { faker::name.name }         affiliation { faker::team.name }         platform { faker::company.catch_phrase }         association :nominator, factory: :user   end end