Posted on 11/14/2003 7:01:31 AM PST by areafiftyone
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Wesley Clark, the latest entrant into the Democratic presidential race, has decided to give his campaign a cash infusion by accepting public financing for the primaries.
The decision announced Thursday means Clark will be limited to $45 million in overall primary spending and face state-by-state spending caps. He will be eligible for up to about $19 million in government funding, money that would have been hard to make up given his late fund-raising start.
"It's a pragmatic decision at this point," Clark said Friday morning in Concord, N.H., where he officially filed for the Jan. 27 primary. "Maybe if lightning strikes, I'd have to reconsider."
Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean last week became the first Democrat ever to turn away public financing and its spending limits for the primaries. Rival John Kerry, the Massachusetts senator, is expected to announce soon whether he will skip the system, which offers a match of up to $250 for each donation up to the limit.
Clark, who started his campaign in late September, raised $3.5 million in the first two weeks. He expects to collect at least $6 million in the current fund-raising quarter, which runs from October through December.
That would have him finishing the year with less than half the amount that money front-runners Dean and Kerry have raised. Dean collected $25 million through September, according to the most recent figures available, while Kerry raised $20 million.
"We're raising money at a significant clip, which was why we waited so long to make the decision," Clark spokeswoman Kym Spell said.
However, she said, Clark ultimately decided to stay within public financing out of respect for the system and because it is the best decision for his campaign.
Clark has filed the initial paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to qualify for the government campaign money. The FEC will make the first monthly payment in January.
The retired general's decision will provide him with an important cash boost heading into the early primaries.
If Clark becomes the Democratic nominee, however, there is a risk he will be near the spending limit as President Bush, with no primary opponent, has millions left to spend next spring and summer, before the general election season starts.
Bush has opted out of public financing for the primaries, as he did in his first bid, and is already at or over the record $106 million he raised in 2000. He plans to accept full public funding for the general election.
Spell said Clark decided not to let Bush's prolific fund raising affect his own campaign strategy. The retired general will have the resources he needs to run, she said.
Other Democratic candidates, including Joe Lieberman, Dick Gephardt and John Edwards, have also committed to taking public financing.
Clark has been seeking to capitalize on Dean's decision to opt out of the post-Watergate system. Clark campaign chairman Eli Segal sent a donor appeal Thursday noting Dean's recent decision and the possibility that Kerry will follow.
"Both have been raising money for over a year and are blanketing the key early states with television advertising and paid campaign workers," Segal wrote in the e-mail. "As you know well, Wes Clark's campaign began just eight weeks ago."
Segal told donors a $1,000 contribution would help pay for a month's rent on the campaign's new South Carolina office, $500 would buy a computer for an Arizona campaign staffer, $100 would pay for a round-trip bus ticket from Little Rock, Ark., to Tulsa, Okla., and $50 or $25 would help pay for campaign materials and other expenses.
That doesn't make sense. Bush is going to spend $106 million in the primaries then take government welfare for the big day? Doesn't he have the votes to run Republican already?
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