The top campaign workers for the emerging 2016 Republican presidential primary race are commanding unheard-of sums of $35,000 a month or more to offer their assistance to candidates, according to Time.com.
While campaigning is often seen as meagerly compensated compared to other political jobs, and foot soldiers still work for a pittance or for nothing at all, the situation for top talent has become very different, and the biggest winners are those with experience working the key early primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina.
The dogfight for talent is even fiercer with a Republican field that is larger than any in recent history, with eight candidates already declared and another seven or eight considered likely join them.
“It is harder to find this time because there are so many candidates or likely candidates,” said a veteran operative to Presidential hopefuls and a current adviser to a top-tier candidate who has yet to formally enter the race. “The supply isn’t here to even meet the demands. ”
The best operatives, Time says, can command salaries of $35,000 a month. That’s more than $400,000 a year, and substantially more than any campaign workers took home in 2012. During that cycle, only Romney political director Rich Beeson made over $200,000.
In addition to the deluge of candidates, Time says, prices are also being driven up by outside groups like American Crossroads, which will be more active than ever this election cycle. A true bidding war has broken out, and some are profiting handsomely.
“They’re inflating the prices of these guys,” one candidate’s adviser told Time. “They know it’s a short run and they want to milk it for all it’s worth.”
For the amount of money Republicans are paying this time around, they’ll have to hope they can achieve better results than Romney did. Beeson was the architect of Romney’s Project ORCA, the smart phone app that was supposed to be Romney’s secret weapon on Election Day but instead proved to be an embarrassing failure.
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