Mitt Romney Is Like Bloomingdale's, Bobby Jindal Is Like Your Corner Boutique

Mike Murphy, college dropout, Republican strategist, screenwriter, and NBC political commentator

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By Ira Boudway

November 6, 2014 at 8:47 AM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

This article is part of the November 10, 2014 issue of businessweek.

How will the field of presidential candidates take shape this year?
We used to call it the invisible primary. Even though we consider 2016 the election year, a lot of the political activity happens in 2015. What’s happened now, with the explosion in what I call the process press, the Politicos, etc.—not to mention cable news networks—is the invisible primary has become incredibly visible. But 2015 is the year in which you try to raise a lot of money, build a national finance committee, and start to actually engage primary voters.

What size bankroll do you need to be a legitimate candidate?
In the old days you used to say that you’ve got to have $25 million raised by Jan. 15 of election year. It was always kind of a phony yardstick. What I care about is cash in the bank on Jan. 1, 2016.