Posted on 07/27/2004 5:01:23 AM PDT by prairiebreeze
John Kerry's election team is to suspend advertising during August, opening itself to what it expects will be a barrage of attacks from the Bush-Cheney campaign.
After a debate with his senior advisers, Mr Kerry has opted to "go dark" in the weeks after the Democratic National Convention to conserve limited federal funds for the weeks immediately before the November 2 election.
The decision was a "risky step", Mary Beth Cahill, the Kerry campaign manager, acknowledged yesterday.
The Kerry campaign hopes that the convention, which opened in Boston yesterday amid boasts of unprecedented party unity and discipline, will help introduce Mr Kerry to an electorate that feels it knows little about him.
The Democrats will still be able to get a pro-Kerry message on the air in the coming weeks, as the party and allied groups can still buy airtime. But the campaign is not going to be able to control the message or the media spending directly.
Ed Gillespie, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said he expected the well-funded Democratic National Committee and the shadow political groups which have raised tens of millions of dollars to see Mr Bush defeated in November will be able to spend throughout August on advertising.
"I do not think we will be deprived of their message," he said.
Mr Kerry was yesterday campaigning in Florida, the state that decided the 2000 election and is likely to be pivotal again in 2004.
Tomorrow, he arrives in his home town of Boston to accept his party's nomination for president on Thursday.
Once he has been formally nominated, the Kerry campaign will be given $75m in federal funds. The law requires that the candidate then spend only that money between the close of the convention and election day.
George W. Bush, too, will be limited to spending $75m in federal funds, but as the Republican National Convention is at the end of August, the Bush-Cheney campaign can continue to spend its war-chest for a further five weeks.
Mr Kerry's aides have debated whether to spend steadily across the 95 days between the convention and election day or hold back. Mr Kerry had even considered coming to Boston for the convention but not formally accepting the nomination, so as not to be bound by election finance laws.
"We have a 13-week general election, they have an eight-week general election," Tad Devine, senior adviser to Mr Kerry, told reporters yesterday at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.
The Kerry campaign is hoping that the convention will help people gain a better understanding of Mr Kerry's personal story, which he will reinforce on a 21-state tour through the summer.
Thank your gum't for "Campaign Finance Reform"... it makes the difference, with a willing press!
I don't know anything about campaigning, but it doesn't sound like an optimal strategy. But, then again, I don't think that this photo-op was exactly a stroke of genius:
They're going dark because his numbers go up when he's out of sight!
That doesn't bother me so much as the blatant support given by so-called "objective" news organizations.
I believe that is correct. Last night on FNC it was mentioned that Bush has $60 million to spend BEFORE the GOP Convention. The panel speculated on how that would be used.
The poster boy for virtual colonoscopy's.
My guess is this report will be as true as the one that there would be no "Bush bashing" at the Democratic convention.
I thought that only the 527s were allowed to run ads at end of campaign?
Kerry can't be colluding with those people, can he?
Since his popularity ebbs with his exposure to the public, "going dark" is probably the smartest thing he's ever done.
There is no way that this will matter. If you recall after the nomination was wrapped up, that we were also told Kerry was in a vulnerable position because he was "fundless" and it would allow Bush/Cheney to "define" him.
He didn't need the funds. The media carried water for him. If this guy had to pay the going rate for all the free media doting he gets and all the Bush bashing he benefits from, we'd be lining up dollar bills from here to the Sun and back.
The media will do his dirty work. I'm sure some more books will be released, movies released, "news journalism" features taped, attack sitcoms penned.
Mcain Feingold - you are correct.
And none of them are constrained by John McCains abridgement of the first amendment.
Fox last night said Bush was going to spend the remaining $60 million or so of his funds before the RNC in September. If so, that will be double what they have spent in most other months. Fred also said that you will see a totally different Bush campaign AFTER the RNC convention. He said they have just been spending and not going after Kerry very agressively. He said even after the DNC this week, Bush will start to become much more visible and attack and make major speeches. Based on the recent polls, things are looking up for Bush. The 97% who were going to vote for Kerry that went to see Fareheit 9-11, are all drinking cool-aid thinking they have this wrapped up.
The Rats got caught with their pants down. Terry Mcauliffe and the Rats are stupid. any idiot, except idiot Democrats, can read the law (McCain/Feingold act), should have scheduled their convention as close to the election as possible.
Remember when sKerry floated he didn't want to except the nomination at the Convention?
Those bozos have millions of dollars that they can't spend, while the the President will spend up to 100 million before he excepts the party's nomination in late August.
DUuuh is right.
I've been praying that the Kerry/Edwards campaign would make some real boners in their strategy. Maybe this is one of them?
LOL! You got that right!
Big mistake if he does this.
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