Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain has charged that Democratic Senator Barack Obama has reneged on a February 2007 pledge to accept Federal matching funds for the 2008 General Election. Apparently they had each signed an independent organizations pledge form with that stipulation. Another question is whether or not they officially applied to the FEC.
Based on McCain’s almost running out of gas a few months ago and Senator Obama’s ongoing surge, that recently includes large campaign contributions, Senator McCain is concerned over the vast difference in warchests available to effectively get his message out. At this point in time Obama does not want to live under a cap.
“In 2004, each major party received $14.924 million in public funds for their conventions, and the parties’ general election nominees were eligible to receive $74.62 million in public funds.”
The 2008 General Election will have $84.1 million dollars for each major party’s presidential candidates and their convention expenses.
The first 2008 date for submission for matching funds was January 2, 2008. The question for me is did any candidates request to participate in this program and have they applied for these public funds?
As I researched data for this post I found an interesting fact. “Information provided by the Treasury Department shows the balance in the funds as of October 31, 2007 was $165,383,063 and the commission estimates that no funds will be available for matching payments in January 2008.”
The following web sites explain the Federal Election Commission and the FEC Act which relates to the public financing of campaigns alternative.
http://www.fec.gov/pages/brochures/pubfund_limits_2008.shtml
http://www.fec.gov/ans/answers_public_funding.shtml#whatispublicfunding
After getting hammered by McCain I read that Obama may concede this point. He does not wish to be presumptuous knowing that the Democratic primary is not over.
The irony of this debate is the Bi-partisan Campaign Reform Act with the key players being John McCain and Russell Feingold that dealt with “soft money” and “527” organizations participation in campaign financing.
Of course Obama’s original commitment to caps is binding. However, now that he has raised money, his tune has changed and he is reneging. This makes him exactly what he claims not to be- a different type of candidate. Beware, this portends future duplicities.
Poster 1,
The bigger lie is McCain’s claim to be anti-lobbyist when in fact lobbyists are running his campaign.
All public financing does is limit successful candidates from raising money so loser candidates can level the playing field.
So, No.2 you agree Obama lied, just that you think McCain’s lie is bigger-gee what a choice we may have in november. This is why I support Clinton. Her dirty laundry is already exposed.
Larry:
It is all over anyway–we now have a GREAT CANDIDATE–Ralph Nader has now declared his candidacy. Hallow Ulaaa
we are saved.!!!
Jack Still
Irvine
Folks.
Now that Ralph Nader has again entered the scene which major party will be hurt the most? I have always said that each of the major party candidates could count on 40 percent of the electorate and would need to draw support from the American First, American Reform, Green, Independence, Libertarian, Moderate,Reform, US Pacifist Party voters along with all of the “decline to state” voters to prevail.
Both Obama and McCain were counting on these voters to win in Nov. Notice that I have not mentioned Senator Hillary Clinton. While she is still in the race this marathon is coming to a close. As of now I just can’t see her closing the gap before the convention. I could be mistaken.
Someone in the media has done their homework. There is no argument that Senator McCain has surrounded himself with lobbyists. The bigger question is whether or not he supported or opposed any expenditures to enrich them other than valid competitive bidding.
We need to be careful in using the guilt by association label.
“Bitch is the new black” -Tina Fey and Amy Poler, SNL
Clinton for President!