All Campaigns start with the best of intentions. The candidate meets with the manager and finance chair, an optimistic budget (the "A" budget) is planned based on the promise of the candidate to "get on the phone," everyone agrees to it and 3 months later everyone meets again to determine what went wrong and frantically plan the "B" budget.

The result: when the campaign should be talking to voters ~ in the final few weeks of the campaign ~ the candidate is either borrowing money against his or her house or locked in a room away from the voters, driven by desperation into doing what should have been done a year before ~ raising money.

It is extremely important, as a candidate, that you accept one fact...you can be the greatest candidate in the world...you can have the best message...and you can work the hardest...but, without money to get your message out, no one will know it.