Everyone will seize a favored candidate.
Changes in campaign-finance laws now allow rich donors to essentially give unlimited amounts of money to support a favored candidate.
As for the Republicans, the book includes details with potential 2016 implications for Mr. Christie, who is widely seen as a favored candidate among establishment Republicans.
Every four years when the nomination process began, business leaders, Republican-leaning trade associations, top corporate law firms and investment bankers slowly formed a consensus behind a favored candidate.
The Christian focus of his political career and the attention that the rally has drawn have given Mr. Perry a distinct advantage should he try to position himself as a favored candidate among religious conservatives.
Mining interests controlled the state judiciary and legislature for decades, at one point buying a United States Senate seat for a favored candidate, W.A. Clark, through such flagrant bribery that the Senate, after an investigation, actually threw him out.
Mr. Logan's reputation for operational excellence made him a favored candidate to fill the gap created by Mr. Pittman's departure, but many believed that the laconic Mr. Logan, 58, would not be interested in additional responsibilities.
So it is that in recent weeks Mr. Rogers, whose previous political involvement amounted to little more than writing a check to a favored candidate — has suddenly become a leader in a secessionist movement bent on cleaving California in two.
