Quote:
Originally posted by ltl/fb
And? Why? How is this different from now, really, aside from the huge amount of time spent in dinky town in those states that have early primaries?
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Now, you have a media campaign that lasts weeks and progresses through wherever the primaries are, with distinct strategies and budgets for each. If Hawaii and West Virginia come the week before NY in the schedule, you may get more bang for the buck by picking one and really focusing on it than by campaigning in NY, so the story before the NY Primary is "Fringie upsets Atticus in West Virgina; Atticus blames his loss on dumb hicks".
Likewise, right now, you're budgetting for separate primaries in NY, NJ and Connecticut, and have to figure your NY budgets based on buying time at up to three different points; the net result is, it's often better to buy more Albany/Syracuse time during a NY primary than NYC time - in terms of the number of NY voters reached per dollar spent. Likewise, buy Hartford TV during the Connecticut primary, but focus on radio and print in Southeastern CT. It's a simpler game, and thus a game that plays better to the big population centers, if its all one primary.
So, how is it different? Syracuse loses importance as well as Davenport. NY and Houston just get even more important.
