A key point. Under the "old" rules, candidates needed to amass huge amounts of donation$ early and often to gain any kind of traction. Nowadays, with a little "out-of-the-box" strategic thinking, they can somewhat level the playing field by leveraging that new media. YouTube is an especially valuable tool, and Cain has been particularly adept at using it to his advantage.
Not to say having big cash on hand isn't helpful, because obviously it is, especially down the stretch, but with new, available media options, candidates can move their efforts forward, build support and pull in donations as time goes on.
Greg Ballard
Ballard was the only Republican to file for mayor, as few members of the city's once-dominant Republican Party were willing to run against Peterson.
Ballard was dramatically outspent by Peterson. He had only $300,000 in campaign funds and low name recognition when he began the race.[4] In comparison, Peterson already had $2.9 million in April while Ballard had only $9,560 at the time.[5] As late as October 14, Ballard had run no TV ads.[5] An October 19 campaign finance report showed that Peterson had raised $1.5 million since April and still had that much on hand to spend. At that point in time Ballard had only $51,000 left, meaning that Peterson had 30 times the funds that Ballard had during the last three weeks of the campaign.[6]