I guess we can cancel that debate over whether the Kerry campaign should opt out of public financing. Kerry’s made his decision.
After detailed exploration of opting out of the public financing system, key strategists in the presidential campaign of Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) are planning to accept $75 million in federal money for the general election.
“We are taking the federal money,” Kerry finance chair Louis Susman said yesterday. Kerry campaign spokesman Michael Meehan was more adamant: “We are not opting out. We are taking public funds. No, N-O, no, we are not opting out.”
That’s pretty clear, except it is dependent on what Bush may or may not do.
Kerry officials voiced one caveat: They would reopen the debate over rejecting federal money if they learned that President Bush planned to use privately raised money to finance his general election campaign.
That seems about right; no point in unilateral disarmament, as it were. BC04 has said over the last week that it would stay in the system as long as Kerry did.
“We have no plans to opt out of public financing, and unless our opponent opts out, we will not consider it,” Bush-Cheney Communications Director Nicolle Devenish told ABC News.
The same day, however, they sounded like they were leaving the door ajar.
Steve Schmidt, a Bush campaign spokesman, said the president “has no plans” to opt out. But Schmidt refused to pledge Bush would stay inside the system for the final eight weeks of the campaign.
What’s that about?
I’m not an expert on such matters, but I wonder if Bush could really screw Kerry over on this. If there are any election lawyers in the house, let me know, but I’m thinking that Kerry could wrap up the DNC and pick up his check from the government for $75 million. Bush would get five weeks to spend the rest of his war chest and then formally accept the GOP nomination, at which time he’s supposed to get his own $75 million check.
But what if, after saying he’d stay in the system, Bush changed his mind at the very last minute? Bush, in the midst of the RNC, could announce that he’s opting out and will rely on private donations (which would far exceed public financing) through November. Wouldn’t that leave Kerry in the lurch, stuck with a $75 million check that he would have already started to spend? There’d be political implications, to be sure, but that’s never seemed to bother Rove, Mehlman, and Co. before. Hmm.