Money and Organization Are About to Start Mattering in the GOP Primary

In a PJTV Front Page segment this week, host Allan Barton asked me why Herman Cain has risen from obscurity to the top tier of the GOP candidates. I replied that the primary, thus far, has been Herman Cain’s Moment. The primary to this point has consisted of debates, and more debates, and some speeches and web videos, and more debates. Cain is brilliant at pretty much all of that and doesn’t need an extensive staff to pull it off. Cain’s charisma and intelligence jump through the TV at you. Of all the candidates, he is the most comfortable in his own skin and most comfortable distilling ideas down to marketable catch phrases. He has risen because, so far, the primary has played entirely to his strengths.

Well, that’s probably about to change. Thanks to some seriously idiotic moves, the first primary and caucus may hit us in the first week of December. Moving the calendar so far forward benefits candidates who have organizations in place or are in an advanced stage of being built out. Those campaigns are Romney’s and Perry’s, the two richest and most experienced machines in the game. And one of the two is making its first real national move this weekend. Check out this email that just arrived from the Romney camp.

Boston, MA – Romney for President announced that they will hold National Call Day tomorrow, October 15. Romney supporters and volunteers from across the country will utilize the campaign’s call from home system to contact voters in early states and spread Mitt Romney’s pro-growth message and build support for his campaign.

“Mitt Romney’s supporters and volunteers in all 50 states form the backbone of our campaign,” said Romney for President Political Director Rich Beeson. “As Mitt Romney has traveled across the country, his supporters ask daily how they can help spread his message. Tomorrow, our volunteers will reach out to voters in the key early states to discuss his message of job creation and lower spending. Mitt Romney is the only candidate who has built a 50 state organization that will be prepared go up against President Obama. National Call Day will be an important step for our campaign to strengthen our nationwide network and build support for Mitt Romney.”

Volunteers Will Be Able To Sign Up For National Call Day At: http://mittromney.com/landing/call-home

This is among the things that having a lot of money in the war chest and a national organization can get you. It’s one thing to see something you like in a candidate’s debate performances and speeches, quite another to get a personal connection to a candidate’s campaign, from a friend or neighbor or regular person on the other end of the line. The latter is what Romney’s national call campaign will give him. That’s likely to help him, a lot.