McCain Financing Structure With RNC Skirts Intention Of Public Finance

The media has been abuzz over speculation that John McCain will accept public financing in the general election. The attention has overshadowed a new fund structure that will allow the McCain camp to collect significantly more money than the individual limits placed by the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill.

The Wall Street Journal reports on the details of McCain's fund:

Campaign manager Rick Davis released the details of the "McCain Victory 08" fund on Friday. He said the entity is a joint committee, combining the McCain campaign, the Republican National Committee and four key states under a "hybrid legal structure."

The idea is to tap donors for more than the $2,300 limit set by campaign finance laws. Under legislation pushed by McCain in his role as a senator from Arizona, an individual can donate a maximum of $2,300 to a presidential primary campaign and the same amount to the general election campaign. Although McCain received the number of delegates necessary to secure the nomination in March, he will not be the party's official nominee until the convention in September--so he is still running a primary campaign.

The new structure allows up to $70,000 in individual contributions by channeling the money into different McCain-centric funds. The first $2,300 of that would go to McCain's primary campaign. The Republican National Committee would receive $28,500 of the donation. The remaining funds would be divided equally, up to $10,000 a piece, among four states the campaign has designated as battlegrounds for November: Wisconsin, Minnesota, Colorado and New Mexico.

The non-partisan organization Public Campaign Action Fund has published an open letter to McCain asking that he drop the system:

This joint fundraising committee, called McCain Victory '08 Fund, will allow your campaign to accept contributions as large as $70,000, according to the New York Times - an amount that is far in excess of contribution limits for candidates and political parties put in place by your own campaign finance law, the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, also known as McCain-Feingold. Your willingness to evade the spirit of McCain-Feingold sets a poor precedent for whomever the Democratic Party nominates as your general election opponent. It also sends a signal that your campaign is less serious about the importance of participating in the public financing system in the general. Indeed, even if you were to participate, you and your campaign are exploiting a loophole and will be still be courting wealthy donors who could donate tens of thousands to the McCain Victory '08 Fund.

You and your campaign will describe this activity as legally sound. But that does not make it right.

Read report on McCain leaving public financing.

Comments

[johnnygoodwud]

if obama says hey if it's legal for him, than it must be legal for me, what the faucets open up to his campaign. do i hear $75 mil in one month?

[ibsteve2u]

A "hybrid legal structure.­"?

Meanwhile, the financial industry struggles to survive the collapse of "hybrid financial structures" and we fight a war in Iraq that was sold to Congress with "hybrid intelligen­ce"....

lollll..oh­, yeah - sure I trust you when you say McCain is different from Bush...

[Wickywoo]

He's violated his own law, and will undoubtedly blame it on "overzealous interns"

Arrest him immediately

[dutchess2]

He has zero chance of ever stepping foot in our White House.

So no one cares what he does...

And while he thinks no one's watching, he's turned in the run of the mill samo samo republican they all are..

shoddy, sneaky, dishonest.­.

[scooperss]

shoddy, sneaky, dishonest.­. could lead to the WH.

[Toerag]

It's worked for the two previous elections!

[jeffp26]

It makes perfect sense that the politician who wrote the law would know where the loopholes were.

You keep going McCain. Make sure we all know you are nothing but a blowhard old warmongering fool, who will lie, cheat and steal, like his wife, to try to get his finger on that red button.

[Pookie2112]

Well, I'll give Mad Cow McSame this much, at least he's showing his true criminality now instead of waiting until he gets in the WH. Asshole is too nice a word for Mad Cow McSame ...

[Tranquility08]

This is very important. This is perhaps the reason that Obama was smart to say he would negotiate with the Repub Nominee before agreeing to opt out of Fed System. No reason for him to stay with his pledge since it's pretty obvious that McCain doesn't intend to comply with the rules anyways.

[PaulC37943]

Bingo! McCain's machinations with his finances, both the "new fund" as well as his flipping off the FEC over his primary campaign finances, gives Obama all the cover he needs to say "it looks like McCain's decided that all's fair with campaign finances"

[skip4Obama]

"100 Yr War McBush" is becoming the straight talk bs'er that's for sure! He'll need every dollar to combat his views in the economy and the war.

[OpusIsUnderTheBed]

I want to be President. Don't bother me with any details.

[RonNYC]

I'm sure if he shows the POW footage again, we will all forget about this.

[mydemos]

McCain is a radical.

[dsgeorge]

NOT ONLY A RADICAL - A FIRST CLASS PRICK, A TRIED AND TRUE WARMONGER, A MCBUSH WANNA BE FOR THE RICHEST OF THE RICH (AKA HIS WIFE, THUS HIM), A BULLY, A LIAR, AND FOR SOME REASON --- A MEDIA "DARLING".­.....GO FIGURE

[CaptainObvious]

Republicans could run Jeff Foxworthy or Larry the Cable Guy, and the media would adore them.

[stormwater]

Not noticed at the time McCain-Feingold was adopted was a secret signing statement by McCain, that the rule only applied to the Democrat Party!

[barackaide]

what in hell is the poor ol' bastard SUPPOSED to do in the face of the Obamanation juggernaught? he has no choice but to dig as deep as he can possibly go. the lower the better.

[ljsfolly]

Mac reminds me more of Richard Nixon daily. I actually expect soon to see the "I am not a crook" coming at us. Sad bad man he is and for people to feel sorry for him is dumb. He was a POW as others were. He happened to marry rich and get money to run for congress all on the I was a POW. We have so very many things that are right now today that do not even have history and war in Vietnam to be anything of concern. The war in Iraq was also built on lies and we know how it went down. Our economy is in recession and we all know it but Mac has noot any clue what to do about it and has said so. We have a military that is going to break unless fixed and yet he talks of a continous war and bases where and when we cannot afford the blood nor money to support them. This is not a war or conflict of years past whose countries needed the help we could give them. The bases are in place all over the world for different reasons but for our protection too. Iraq and the middle east would never agree to any more of an occupation now there. They want us gone and we should agree to do it as safe as we can for the world. Mac has dementia and it progresses it doesn't get better.

[Chris7982]

GOOD OL WAshington at work....ol­d in every sense of the word too!!!! using every loophope to squeeze money for his campaign and pretending that he is a person of moral hi grround and cares about ethics and finace reform!!!! BULL!!! I knew that it will be days before his true self emerges..h­uge ego, exploiting his POW status to run for president and the media is afraid to call him out because of push back from his advisors calling him a WAR HERO....th­anks for your service and every one has given you crdit for it now get on with it and run a campaign like a gentleman like you talked about....n­ot the slime of trying to raise money on Bo and ties to HAMMAS and mentioning the Weather undergroun­d...you are so old of course you will remember that!!!!! Maybe you want to be reminded of the keating 5!!!!