Assess the Importance of the Invisible Primary System
The ‘invisible primary’, also known as the money primary, can be define as the period of time between the first party presidential candidates announcing their intention to run for president and the first primary. The ‘invisible primary’ allows candidates to raise funds for the upcoming primary elections and to garner public support. The fund raising figures and opinion polls are used by the media and campaign teams to predict who the front runners for the nomination are. This is seen as a crucial stage of a campaign for the presidency, as candidates who raise the most money are going to appear the strongest, and as a result will be able to raise even more money from those donors who are seeking to engage in ‘pork barreling’ or sponsoring candidates so their future interests are ensured.
It can be argued that the ‘invisible primary’ is important as it can usually determine the amount of funding that a candidate will receive, which in the long-run is of great help as it can help them run a wide and effective campaign. Arguably, this is of the utmost importance as money can buy all the necessities needed to run a successful campaign, from paying the wages of the campaign team all the way up to billboard rent. Conversely, a candidate who fails in the ‘invisible primary’ stage will receive relatively little funding as original support will swiftly waver as supporters begin to realise there candidate has little chance of winning and so will effectively stop wasting money, and also any companies or individuals who wish to engage in ‘pork-barreling’ will probably stay away as the prospects for the candidate is very small. Both of these effects will culminate in minuscule amounts of funding putting the candidate further behind his competitors. A good example of these effects can be seen in the 2011 Republican Presidential Nominee Race, where a clear front-runner is Mitt Romney, a “fund-raising machine”, who has managed to accumulate vast amounts of funding before the
It can be argued that the ‘invisible primary’ is important as it can usually determine the amount of funding that a candidate will receive, which in the long-run is of great help as it can help them run a wide and effective campaign. Arguably, this is of the utmost importance as money can buy all the necessities needed to run a successful campaign, from paying the wages of the campaign team all the way up to billboard rent. Conversely, a candidate who fails in the ‘invisible primary’ stage will receive relatively little funding as original support will swiftly waver as supporters begin to realise there candidate has little chance of winning and so will effectively stop wasting money, and also any companies or individuals who wish to engage in ‘pork-barreling’ will probably stay away as the prospects for the candidate is very small. Both of these effects will culminate in minuscule amounts of funding putting the candidate further behind his competitors. A good example of these effects can be seen in the 2011 Republican Presidential Nominee Race, where a clear front-runner is Mitt Romney, a “fund-raising machine”, who has managed to accumulate vast amounts of funding before the