Can’t Buy An Election
On the 2nd, I tossed some numbers at you, about Mike Huckabee’s campaign: his budget was just over $2 million, compared to Mitt Romney’s over $60 million. Personally, I thought that the money was really going to be a deciding factor.
But, as everyone of CNN’s political analysts managed to say during last night’s coverage, you really can’t buy an election.
What factors let Mike Huckabee win without running money through the campaign machine?
A big one seems to be simple word-of-mouth. Public relations specialists love WOM campaigns: basically customers (or voters) sell themselves the product (or candidate). Huckabee got his message out to Iowa’s evangelical community, and BOOM! they spread it amongst themselves. It seems like other candidates put a big emphasis on getting voters out to where they could hear the candidate talk, like at big rallies.
Even though I already got to stick my foot in my mouth last night by basing my expectations on budget alone, I’m going to make a similar prediction: Huckabee just doesn’t have the budget to get the nomination. His PR tactics will get him plenty of voters in the Bible Belt, but he’ll still have to buy ads, stage rallies, etc. on the coasts. A candidate may not be able to buy an election, but it still costs money to just be in the race.
