Outside the Beltway

SPENDING LIMITS

James Joyner · Monday, November 10, 2003 · 3 comments

Markos Zuniga thinks Dean is doing the right thing:

Here’s a little thought amidst the “controversy” of Dean opting out of public financing (a damn good decision I wish all the top candidates would follow).
In order to take federal funds, candidates have to agree with a hard spending cap for each primary state. In Iowa, it is $1.3 million. In New Hampshire, $729,600.

Campaigns will jump through all sorts of hoops to avoid hitting those caps, such as shacking up campaign workers across the border in neighboring states, etc. And if a campaign exceeds those limits? They get slapped with a fine. After the race is over. Big deal.

Given the must-win status of Iowa for Gephardt and New Hampshire for Kerry, does anyone really think they would’ve adhered to those caps? Chances are slight. That would limit Gephardt’s Iowa expenditures to less than $1 million for the rest of the campaign (he’s spent about $360K already) and limit Kerry’s NH expenditures to less than $500K (he’s already spent about $240K).

It’s doubtful with the do-or-die nature of those states that either candidate would abide by the limits. Adhering to the cap would be poor campaign strategy. Paying the fine or opting out would be best.

Which points to the utter stupidity of the public financing system. For one, it hasn’t kept pace with inflation from its Watergate-era roots. And it doesn’t (and can’t) force candidates from all parties to abide by the caps.

I agree. The only quibble I have is that Dean was very much in favor of abiding by the spending limits when it looked like was was an insurgent candidate who wouldn’t be able to raise much money until establishing himself. It’s a bit hypocritical to change positions now that he’s the frontrunner. That said, changing from a silly stance to a correct one, even for self-serving reasons, is still the best course of action.

I scratch my head at Kos’ conclusion, though:

Of course, Dean used George Bush legitimately as cover, but that seems to have gotten lost in the noise. Ultimately, Bush is the enemy, and unilaterally disarming against his machine is sheer madness.

Criticize Dean all you want. But if you want your guy to be the nominee and still compete head-on against Bush, you better hope he ditches the spending caps as well.

The spending caps for the primaries and general election campaign have nothing to do with one another. In 2000, Bush decided not to accept matching funds in the primaries for reasons identical to Dean’s. He took the funds in the general election and abided, so far as I know, by the requisite spending limits for the race against Al Gore. My strong guess is that Bush and Dean (or whoever wins the Democratic nomination) will do likewise this year.