As a political campaign unfolds, what is the one subject that always gets brought up when the media and pundits talk about a certain campaign? And no, I’m not talking about health care, or the Iraq war, or education, I’m talking about the behind the scenes subject that is always talked in regards to whether or not the person running for office has a legitimate shot at making it. That subject is money. People can say what they want about the issues being so important in campaigns, but the real truth is that if a candidate doesn’t have money, than they really don’t stand a chance of winning.
Today the real point of a campaign is to raise money. In the current bid for the White House, which is still in the primary stage, the two candidates who have managed to raise the most money are the two who are in the lead for their respective parties. For the Democrats the leader in campaign fund raising is Hilary Clinton. She has a commanding lead in that department over fellow democratic candidates Barak Obama and JohnEdwards. On the Republican side the leader is raising funds is former New York City Mayor, Rudy Guliani. These two have pretty fair leads in the states that have primaries early, and one of the biggest reason is they have the most money to spend on staff, ads, and they can also make more trips to the states to make speeches and stage rallies, which in turn help raise more money.
So in today’s political world the reason a person may get elected to public office is not because they are the most qualified, but because they were able to raise the most money. It’s not necessarily true in all cases, but for the most part it is the way it goes.
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I agree with you on the fact that money is a big issue when it comes to elections, I don’t feel it is the only key for these candidates being elected. Money is the outlet these candidates use to send their message to the voters. It makes sense that the candidates with the most money would be front runners. Since they have the most money, they are able to campaign more and so their views are heard more. However if people don’t agree with a candidates views all the money in the world can’t help them. Also in terms of the primaries coming up this election cycle, it is still early and while Clinton and Guliani are far ahead in the polls now, things can change drastically. For instance if one of these two frontrunners has a hiccup in an early primary that could hurt them drastically and even with all the money they have raised, it might not be enough to save them. Money is a huge part in the election process, but I would like the think people still care about the issues and the candidates stances on the issues, whether or not this is true is another question.
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