Karen Tumulty/Swampland: “The Public Financing Question”
One of the aspects of the potential matchup between Senators McCain and Barack Obama in November, has been the convention that both candidates may agree to - that is, to accept only public financing in the general election. More on this subject from Karen Tumulty from Swampland at Time.com: The Public Financing Question…
…But I just talked to someone who told me that it would be crazy for Obama–or anyone else–to stay within the legal spending limits in exchange for federal matching funds. And that someone is none other than the most recent chairman of the Federal Election Commission.
“It would be insane to, because they will lose control of the message of their campaign,” says Robert Lenhard, who chaired the FEC until a standoff between the Senate and the White House effectively put the commission out of business on Jan. 1.
Already, candidates put themselves at a disadvantage of they stay within the law, because outside groups are spending something like five times as much money as politicians are allowed under the spending limits. The Supreme Court’s decision in the Wisconsin Right to Life case–which happened after Obama made his pledge–makes that disadvantage even worse, because it allows outside groups to spend right up until election day. All expectations are that the amount spent by corporations, labor and other outside interests is going to skyrocket.
“It just provided a lot more freedom for outside groups to talk about candidates right before an election,” Lenhard says of the Supreme Court decision. “It is among the most dramatic shifts in this area of the law in decades. It completely changed the terrain.”
Obama still says that if he gets the nomination, he wants to reach “a meaningful agreement in good faith that results in real spending limits.” But by Lenhard’s analysis, he’d better be worried about a lot more than the Republican nominee.
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