$40,000 South Carolina filing fee looms for GOP candidates

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

You don't have to win SC. It's definitely not part of Pataki's path to victory.

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

You don't have to win SC. It's definitely not part of Pataki's path to victory.

But you have to be on the ballot there to be viewed as a legitimate candidate. Otherwise you'll fade into irrelevancy after New Hampshire as the media pretends you don't exist for the next few weeks.

And Pataki has no path to victory.

But let's say Pataki surges (yes, I know, I have him at a 0% chance of winning the nomination, but still) and gets 3rd in New Hampshire, and elects to stick it out to Super Tuesday. He still wouldn't be a force in South Carolina. I see little real difference between placing sixth or seventh in the state and not being on the ballot. The media attention in the days leading up to a given primary is typically limited to those candidates who are most likely to win the primary or need a "good enough" performance to continue.

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

This is so, so cruel. And they say there isn't 'money in politics'. America's supposed to be a nation where anyone can run for political office, but how can they in the GOP if they basically have to spend what is usually around a year's salary just for one state?

I would criticize this as another hackish GOP policy, but I'm pretty sure the Dems do it too...

Well it's either that or this:

And this is a problem because? The instructions are very clear and the media coverage makes it pretty obvious who the joke perennials are. In a GE setting, a few big parties gaining most of the power over time (as happens even in most proportional systems) would help make a lot of the choices irrelevant.