Why do smaller political parties have a hard time raising money? They don't have name recognition like the Democrats and Republicans. The two parties raise money by hiring fundraising companies. As long as there are only red and blue newspapers, news networks, columnists, pollsters, radio stations and legislators, the two major parties will have the recognition status to hire private companies to call strangers on the phone and ask them for financial help. An example from www.politicalmoneyline.com:

7/16/2006
[For an unspecified period] The College Republican National Committee, a 527 organization, reported raising $359,708 and spending $1,248,855. The committee paid Infocision Management Corp (OH) $821,634 for fundraising.

They're floating in money not because of a performance or unit of work, but because they can rely on their party's recognition status.

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