Lawmakers seek overhaul of presidential public financing
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sen. John McCain and other sponsors of the nation's new campaign finance law have turned their attention to presidential public financing, proposing legislation Friday they say will help save the system.
To help the program adjust to the soaring cost of primary campaigns, the proposal would:
• Dramatically increase the amount of government money that candidates could get for the primaries, from the current $18.7 million to $60 million.
• Raise the program's spending limit from the current $45 million to $75 million and eliminate its state-by-state spending caps.
• Double the overall spending limit to $150 million for candidates taking part in the system if a rival opts out and spends more than $100 million.
Candidates who want the public money would have to commit to taking it for the primaries and the general election.
The changes would take effect for the 2008 race.
Next year's election marks the first time candidates from both major parties have abandoned the system for the primaries. President Bush, who is opting out for 2004 as he did in 2000, already has topped the record $106 million he collected for his first race.
Democratic hopefuls Howard Dean and John Kerry also are opting out, becoming the first Democrats since the program's creation after Watergate to do so. The system is financed by taxpayers who check a box on their income-tax forms to direct $3 to it, at no cost to themselves. About one in nine participate.
"The public financing system for presidential elections, which aims to allow candidates to run competitive campaigns without becoming overly dependent on private donors, is a system worth improving and preserving," McCain, R-Arizona, and the bill's other sponsors, Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wisconsin, and Reps. Christopher Shays, R-Connecticut, and Martin Meehan, D-Massachusetts, said in a written statement.
The earlier dates of key primaries, and the ability of candidates outside the system to raise tens of millions of dollars more than it provides have exposed its weaknesses, they said.
Campaign finance experts, ranging from watchdog groups to Federal Election Commission officials, have argued the program needs an overhaul if it is to survive.
Besides their freedom from spending limits, candidates who skip public financing can continue to raise money to tide them through the months after the primaries, before the parties' presidential conventions, when the GOP and Democratic nominees will become eligible for about $74 million in full government financing for their general-election campaigns.
Copyright 2003 The
Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
