But if Bush and Gore maintain their leads to face each other in the general election, the Texas governor will have a decided early advantage.
Democrats find themselves in a far less enviable position.
Instead of spending money on primaries, you can begin spending it on the general election. Once Gore locks down the nomination, the Democratic National Committee could come to his aid. But senior campaign officials, including chairman Tony Coelho, met recently to air concerns that the party' s fund-raising team may not be able to generate the amounts needed. We will need to find a way to get our message out at that time. But Gore's media consultant Bill Knapp, who as a Clinton adviser witnessed first-hand the benefits of Clinton's financial advantage over Dole during the 1996 campaign, argued that the issue in 2000 is not money but message.