Playing Fair

Washington Post ^ | 11/10/03

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

...But if this is his rationale, Mr. Dean should promise to stay within the spending limits until he emerges as the Democratic nominee. Sen. John Kerry (Mass.), who's considering a similar move, has made this pledge. But the Dean campaign isn't going along.

Breaking the spending limits while the Democratic race is still on would be opportunistic and hypocritical for a supposed believer in campaign finance reform. It would give Mr. Dean a twofold advantage over his fellow Democrats in the guise of trying to defeat Mr. Bush. First, candidates who take federal funding (the government matches the first $250 of every check they receive) are limited to spending about $45 million in the primaries, a ceiling that has become increasingly significant as the cost of campaigning has risen. Second, the candidates must also abide by spending ceilings for individual states; while these caps are rather easily evaded, a candidate who opts out of the system would have some strategic edge by being freed from any state limit, an extra benefit in Iowa and New Hampshire. If Mr. Dean's going to win the nomination -- and with the imminent endorsement of two big unions, that's looking increasingly possible -- he should do it on a level playing field...