Raising Money on the Campaign Trail Now Defining the Best Presidential Candidate

Because of campaign finance reform, past presidential elections statistics, the campaign Internet presence, advertising’s importance, exploring journalists’ coverage of presidential races in choice of topic and presentation, and the influence of the AFL-CIO on elections, it is obvious that the best presidential candidate is a person who can raise the most money. A candidate’s stance on political issues is no longer as important in presidential elections as it once was. 

As more states schedule their primaries and caucuses earlier, the American presidential nomination process makes decisions on which presidential candidate will represent the party too quickly. Presidential candidates must announce their candidacy the winter or spring of the year before the election before voters are paying attention (Bush and Mayer, 2004). The invisible primary season starts the last presidential election day and concludes on the first statewide vote (Cornfield and Seiger, 2004).