White House bids are now accepted
By Mark Z. Barabak
LA Times
November 7, 2006
After months of quiet jockeying, the 2008 presidential race begins in earnest as campaigning ends in a fierce midterm election that has helped reshape the next contest on both sides.
White House hopefuls have been blazing across the country — stumping for allies, stroking donors and giving away millions of dollars in goodwill contributions — as they competed in a kind of shadow campaign...
The early presidential maneuvering stems from a sense that the White House contest will be unusually competitive. For the first time in more than 50 years, no sitting president or vice president is running, denying any candidate that leg up...
Given the front-loaded calendar — the assumption is both nominees will be chosen by early February 2008 — the bulk of campaigning will occur in 2007. A series of formal announcements is likely in the next few weeks, beginning with several of the lesser-known candidates; no one can imagine waiting until late summer a year out to make their intentions known, the way Bill Clinton did before winning the 1992 Democratic nomination.
Ballpark estimates put the cost of a competitive campaign at $30 million to $50 million for each side, though winning candidates could easily spend twice that. For Democrats, there will also be new ground to cover, with early contests added in Nevada and South Carolina, along with the traditional kickoff states of Iowa and New Hampshire.
The 'Off-Year Primary'
John Nichols
Mon Nov 6, 3:00 PM ET
The Nation -- It has become fashionable to refer to the hurdles that presidential contenders must leap before any actual primary votes are cast as primaries of a different sort: There's the "wealth primary" to measure fundraising capability; the "Beltway primary" to measure how party insiders are lining up; and now the "blogosphere primary" to measure where netroots activists are gravitating. But the most important pre-primary "primary" is still the one in which the contenders try to make themselves useful--by lending their star power and giving generously to candidates in tight races--during the election cycle prior to the presidential year...
