Any political geeks in the house? I'm trying to understand some of the ramifications of the close race; specifically, how it affects the money race for the general election.
If the Democratic race extends all the way to the convention, that will leave almost no time to raise money for the general. So can the candidates use the cash-on-hand at that time for the general? I know that money raised for the general can't be used for the primaries, but what about the other way around?
If that money can be used, I could envision a contest where the candidates were using their CoH figures as part of an electability argument at the convention. Or, maybe they'll decide to blow their wad well before the convention...
Also you experts, please explain this one to me. Here are the results from last night's Washington GOP Caucuses:
John McCain | 25.5% |
Mike Huckabee | 23.7% |
Ron Paul | 20.6% |
Mitt Romney | 16.5% |
Other | 1.1% |
Uncommitted | 12.7% |
|
87% precincts reporting
So, how can this be a final result, if the "winner" only had a 1.8% lead with 13% of the precincts that still hadn't counted? What's the deal here? Did somebody skew the reported result so that McCain wouldn't have such a devastating headline? What am I missing here?