That means hiring fundraisers, and it means working the shrimp cocktail circuit for months before the election for donations, and mastering your mail-shot fundraising skills. Get a consultant You're running for the party's nomination. That means there isn't such a thing as a party machine to do it for you. If you don't fill the gap with your own people there won't be any kind of machine at all. What you need is a political consultant.
Political consultants are the armed mercenaries of modern politics.
They think campaigns, they design campaigns, and they run campaigns. If you let them, they'll do it all. They'll construct your polling, run your focus groups, design your political advertising, and decide when your ads are going to run. If you want them to, they will deal with the media on your behalf, making themselves available when you are touring the local brown envelope factory. They're good talkers, and they talk the language the political reporters understand.