Long before the first ballot was cast, analysts picked Bill Richardson, a Democratic former congressman who served as energy secretary in the Clinton administration, to become New Mexico's first Hispanic governor.
Three almost as well-known and well-financed governors – Scott Walker of Wisconsin, Rick Perry of Texas and Louisiana's Bobby Jindal – have seen their campaigns sink before the first ballot has been cast.
Mr. Bush's record-shattering $70 million had infused his quest with an aura of inevitability, causing some Republican rivals -- Elizabeth Dole and Dan Quayle -- to drop out before the first ballot was cast.
Tokyo Sexwale, a South African businessman who withdrew as a candidate just before the first ballot, worked as an advocate for Mr. Infantino, too, persuading an African delegate to switch.
Steele's election, which occurred after six rounds of balloting, came about after former Ohio secretary of state Kenneth Blackwell (another African American candidate for the chairmanship) withdrew before the fifth ballot and endorsed Steele, who ultimately defeated South Carolina Republican Party chairman Katon Dawson 91 77.
A populist who inspires so little enthusiasm from actual voters that he drops out before the first ballot gets cast probably isn't the man to improve Mitt Romney's numbers with blue-collar voters in Ohio and Michigan – and absent that qualification, the argument for picking Pawlenty mostly evaporates.
Five months before the first ballot is cast and 15 months before the last will be counted, Dr. Dean, the former governor of Vermont, spent the past four days being ferried from rally to rally in a chartered jet as though in the heat of a head-to-head national campaign rather than in the nascent chapter of a long-shot bid in a crowded field.
Buckner consistently ran third in the first six ballots, but withdrew his name from consideration before the seventh ballot.
In most cases, they trail so badly in the matchups that the 2016 presidential election would be over before the first ballot is cast.
