As you may have heard, the Edwards campaign announced today that John Edwards will take public financing for it the primary election season. Although this has been reported inaccurately and confusingly here on Daily Kos and elsewhere, it is actually a very good move, and I'll explain why below the fold.
As you may know, John Edwards has long been a champion of public campaign financing. He believes we should get the money out of politics, to give you and I a better chance to have our voices heard. By pledging to take public financing today in the primary season, Edwards is standing behind the principle that he has long espoused.
"You can't buy your way to the Democratic nomination—you should have to earn the votes of the American people with bold vision and ideas," said Edwards' campaign manager Congressman David Bonior. "This is the most expensive presidential campaign in history, by far. And the simple fact is that the influence of money in politics—and the focus on raising money in this election—has gotten out of control. It's time to get back to focusing on the issues that matter to the American people. That's why John Edwards has decided to play by the rules that were designed to ensure fairness in the election process by capping his campaign spending and seeking public financing."
Edwards is also challenging his competitors to take public campaign financing. I doubt that they will, but it certainly gives him a chance to claim the high road.
Edwards believes the race should be about ideas, not money. This gives him a chance to focus on ideas.
Now, I think this is a brilliant political move. I hope that by stating the reasons, I can clear up some questions that people have had.
First of all, I'm not going to claim that this is purely altruistic or holier than thou. It does fit in very well with John's message of supporting public campaign financing, but it is also smart.
This will give the Edwards campaign all of the money that they need to compete, and it will free them up from having to focus so much on fundraising, and allow them to focus on campaigning. That alone should be a huge boost to their campaign, because fundraising takes a lot of effort and energy.
The Edwards campaign has always said that their target budget was $40 million. I don't know, and neither does anyone else, exactly what their fund raising total will be at the end of Q3, but the Edwards campaign told key supporters last night in a conference call that he has raised more money than any presidential candidate in history raised prior to this year's race. He has outraised Howard Dean's impressive total from this time in 2003, which was historic at the time. So again, I don't quite know the number, but I estimate it to be well over 25 million and approaching 30 million.
In other words, he would be definitely on track to raise his budget, even if he were not taking public campaign financing.
The fact is, by taking public campaign financing, he is eligible for matching funds of up to $21 million. That means he will hit the $50 million limit that he can spend in the primary season under the rules of public campaign financing without any effort at all. And this puts him over budget.
As someone who has donated money to his campaign, and stretched my budget to do so, I am absolutely thrilled that he's accepting public campaign financing. It means new contributions will be matched, and it puts less pressure on supporters to break their own banks to support him.
I like that he is being fiscally responsible and not raising money he doesn't need, and I think it reflects well on him as a presidential candidate.
It has been falsely reported that he has committed to taking public campaign financing in the general. In fact, he has not. What he has said, is that he will challenge the Republicans to take public campaign financing, and if they will not, he is not obligated to do so either.
Since he will be over budget, I'm not concerned about him running out of money before the general. I also think that 527s will be able to help him. Also, in wrinkles of public campaign financing rules that I don't quite understand, not all of the campaign spending will be subject to the $50 million limit. Kos got an update from the campaign on this, but I must confess that I don't fully understand it.
Update II: Just talked to the campaign -- they say
1.) the cap doesn't apply to field, and only 50 percent of advertising counts against the spending cap ($54 million). So they think they'll have plenty of money to get through a primary season that will be over February 5, and have enough to last through the summer;
2.) the article was wrong -- they're taking the Obama approach for the general election. That is, they'll opt into public financing only if the Republican nominee does as well; and
3.) even if they're short on money, the 527s can pick up the slack over the summer.
Anyway, I'm very happy about this, because I think it reflects his principles, and it also gives me total confidence that the Edwards campaign will have all the money that they need, because they will be over budget.
They will still need to raise some money, though. Since there are exceptions to the $50 million limit, I'm not clear exactly how much money they can raise, but in any case,contributions you make here will now be matched up to $250.