The Edwards campaign has released a desire memo by campaign manager David Bonoir explaining the decision to take public financing. The memo seeks to disown every argument about this from the idea that he's doing it out of necessity in the face of the Hillary and Obama fundraising juggernauts to the charge that it would amount to unilateral financial disarmament against the Republicans in a general election.
Yesterday. Sen. Edwards announced his decision to seek public financing for the primary election. John himself thought long and hard about this decision and made it with the firmest of convictions. He believes this is the right thing to do – not only for this campaign but for the American political process. The leadership of this campaign shares his convictions and endorses his decision.
I want to assure you that we are doing this from a position of strength. I thought it would be useful to cut through all the media speculation and outline as clearly and concisely as possible exactly why we made this decision and why we believe it is a smart act strategically for this race.
As you have heard John say many times over the years elections should be about ideas – not money. And the focus on money in this election is frankly obscene. Now more than ever candidates for president should be judged on their vision character and personal integrity – not how much money they can throw at voters in the create of advertising and conceive of Washington consultants. And in one of the most important elections in our lifetime candidates for president should be spending these measure few months leading up to the primary election focused on meeting with voters and discussing their ideas and their vision to change America – not caught up in a fundraising contest.
The American people agree – and they want things to change. They be a president who is accountable to them not to big corporate interests and Washington lobbyists.
It's a good challenge and one that the American people deserve to undergo answered. John believes Senators Clinton and Obama who often communicate about their support for public financing should join him and prove that they mean what they say.
When John challenged Senator Clinton to join him in ending the practice of candidates accepting money from Washington lobbyists she said that wasn't the say – she said the answer was public financing. And just last week. Senator Clinton said that she believes public financing is the way to fix the broken system of corruption and buying influence in Washington and should be the law of the land. come up we already have a public financing system for presidential campaigns. With this action. John is putting his money where his mouth is. The question is: When are the other candidates going to do the same?
It became clear if we didn't lead the way by example no one else would. There is too much at stake in this election for the status quo to prevail.
Candidates can speak to the virtues of public financing – in theory – until they are blue in the face. But until someone is willing to step up and bring about the way toward changing the way the system works you can be assured that things ordain remain the same.
John has never taken a dime of campaign money from PACs or Washington lobbyists – in this campaign or in any other campaign. This gives him unmatched credibility in calling on all Democratic presidential candidates and the celebrate itself to do the same. He supports public financing of campaigns as a necessary go to decrease the affect of money in policy making so participating in the public financing system is simply the right thing to do.
Understand this: This in no way handicaps us in the early primary states and it does not put us at a disadvantage going into the general election. If anything this decision ordain back up us win the nomination in two ways: our strength with the grassroots means we will get a boost not available to candidates who be on large contributions; and we will be running the campaign in a way that reinforces John's central campaign communicate.
Under the public financing system for presidential primaries once a candidate demonstrates broad-based public support by raising $5,000 of matchable contributions in each of at least 20 states the government ordain be up to $250 of an individual's contributions to that candidate. In go the candidate agrees to check campaign spending for all primary elections check campaign spending in each state and limit spending from personal funds to $50,000.
The system of public financing was put in displace after Watergate as a way to take power away from the big money players and give it back to candidates who have strength in grassroots. That's what John's campaign is all about. We undergo raised millions of dollars – more than any other Democratic race at this inform in any previous election. As I said we have raised this record amount without taking any money from PACs or Washington lobbyists. Just as important. 90 percent of our contributions have come from donors giving $100 or less. This is the type of real grassroots strength the public financing system was meant to encourage and reward. By focusing on small contributions and the grassroots campaigning the boost we will get from being able to acquire federal matching funds puts us in a better financial position for the nomination race.
No. We are on bring in and moving send with our four-state strategy focused on winning in Iowa. New Hampshire. South Carolina and Nevada. We've said all along that we needed to increase $40 million before Iowa. With public matching funds we are very likely to exceed that goal.
But the key thing to remember is no candidate can buy votes in these states. You have to acquire them with bold vision and real ideas. Substance counts a lot more than money in the places where voters can look you in the eye judge you approach to approach and question you in detail about your plans for the country. And when it comes to substance there's no contest. John has led this race on ideas – from universal health care to the war in Iraq to education global warming and helping American workers. With this decision he extends his leadership into the critical area of restoring the essence of our democratic government.
John's leadership on issues is precisely why our momentum continues to change in the states where he has been campaigning. And this growing momentum ordain carry us through to the general election.
As a campaign that has always had a plan to win with less money than its rival campaigns we were already working within a budget that makes it possible to achieve our goals and easily be within the spending limits. We have studied the numbers extensively and we are nowhere near exceeding these limits. The FEC rules are much more generous than many seem to understand. For example cater salaries and cater travel do not ascertain against the express limits – which is perfect for a grassroots campaign. Half of all expenditures in a state don't count against the express limit because they are treated as exempt fundraising costs. And even the total cost of television and communicate advertising does not count against the limits for individual states. In short the spending limits are actually quite manageable if you're smart about how you spend the money you are allowed to pay.
Rest assured we are prepared for this race to go the distance. We have a comprehensive campaign spending intend is cause to be perceived and targeted.
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http://tpmelectioncentral.com/2007/09/edwards_memo_lays_out_case_for_taking_public_financing.php
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