The Opening on Exiting Public Financing that Sen. Obama Has Been Waiting For?

Via TPM comes this interview in the Boston Herald in which Sen. McCain says that there's nothing he can do to stop 527 attacks on Sen. Obama. As TPM notes: "Obama's finance team has explicitly instructed donors not to give money to those groups. McCain, by contrast, seems to be saying that he can't control the groups on his side."

Bad news for Sen. Obama? Not necessarily.

It has been clear for some time that Sen. Obama rationally would not choose to opt into public financing for the general election, and now he has a reason not to do it. As I explained in my Findlaw piece:

Obama has since imposed some new conditions for such an agreement [to use public financing in the general election], conditions that make it much less likely he will reach an agreement to participate in the system in the general election: "The candidates will have to commit to discouraging cheating by their supporters; to refusing fundraising help to outside groups; and to limiting their own parties to legal forms of involvement. And the agreement may have to address the amounts that Senator McCain, the presumptive nominee of his party, will spend for the general election while the Democratic primary contest continues."

Sen. McCain never agreed to limit his spending while the Democrtic contest continued, and now it looks like he is giving some fundraising help to outside groups: the Obama campaign can justifiably read Sen. McCain's comments as a green light to anti-Obama 527s. Sen. Obama now has the green light to opt out of the public financing system.

Comments

[GLaB]

Any questions?

[GrainOSand]

I have no questions. Once I read:

"Obama's finance team has explicitly instructed donors not to give money to those groups. McCain, by contrast, seems to be saying that he can't control the groups on his side."

I was done.

[GLaB]

On February 13, 2008, in response to a question, Senator McCain’s campaign manager
reaffirmed the pledge Senator McCain made last year. According to a February 13, 2008
post by David Broder on washingtonpost.com:

Asked whether McCain, a longtime advocate of campaign finance reform, would accept
public financing of the general election campaign, with its spending limits, Davis
reiterated McCain’s pledge to do so — if the Democratic candidate also complied.


Given the uncertainty created by your campaign spokesman in the last two days about the
status of the commitment you made, our organizations request that you reaffirm the
commitment you made last year.

Our organizations strongly urge you to personally make clear to citizens that you remain
committed to using the public financing system in the presidential general election if you
are the Democratic nominee and if the Republican nominee also agrees to use the public
financing system in the general election.

Campaign Legal Center League of Women Voters
Common Cause Public Citizen
Democracy 21 U.S. PIRG


http://www.uspirg.org/uploads/iA/f5/iAf5VgMBheQjJAPATbwTlw/Obama.pdf

[GLaB]

"...This commitment was made without any conditions and clearly stated, “If I am the
Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican
nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election.”

During the course of the past year, the media recognized the commitment you made.

For example, a Washington Post editorial on April 5, 2007 said:

One of the leading candidates in each party — Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), whose
request to the Federal Election Commission opened the door to this solution, and Sen.
John McCain (R-Ariz.) — has already agreed to accept the public financing and live
within the general election limits if his opponent were to do the same. It’s time for the
other leading contenders to make clear their intentions.

Similarly, a New York Times editorial on April 5, 2007 said:

[W]hy shouldn’t all the candidates join Senators Obama and McCain in pledging to go
halfway toward sanity by embracing public finance limits in next year's general election,
providing both final candidates agree?

That would at least suggest a heartbeat still exists for public financing among the money
political class.

[GLaB]

Barack Obama: "I was FOR public financing, before I was AGAINST it."

[GLaB]

"In a Feb. 1 filing with the Federal Election Commission that was made public on Wednesday, Mr. Obama said that he, too, would seek enough private donations to remain competitive, but with a twist. He asked the commission if he could begin soliciting private donations with the understanding that he might later return the money to his contributors. If he won the Democratic nomination, he could then strike a deal with the Republican nominee to return their private donations and use only public money for the general election. For 2008, that would limit each general election campaign to about $85 million.

“Should both major party nominees elect to receive public funding, this would preserve the public financing system, now in danger of collapse, and facilitate the conduct of campaigns freed from any dependence on private fund-raising,” Mr. Obama’s filing said. "

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/08/us/politics/08money.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[GLaB]

You want more?

[GLaB]

But Mr. Obama, campaigning on pledges to clean up politics, argued in his filing with the commission that the public financing system had insulated candidates from a corrupting dependence on big donors. He asserted that the system could be preserved for the general election through bipartisan agreement if party nominees returned early contributions.

The plausibility of such an agreement is not clear. One nominee is likely to have a financial edge on the other at the outset of the campaign, and accepting public financing would mean relinquishing that edge."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/23/us/politics/23fec.html

[GLaB]

Proposal by Obama on Public Financing Appears to Gain
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK


WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 — The staff of the Federal Election Commission has drafted an opinion that would allow the two major parties’ presidential nominees to adopt what amounts to a fund-raising truce.
The draft opinion would allow the nominees, if both agreed, to return contributions they had solicited for the general election campaign and limit themselves to public financing for it instead.

The opinion is a response to an inquiry by Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, a leading candidate for the Democratic nomination. It is an indication of how the commission, which released the document Thursday, is likely to rule on the idea. The commissioners are expected to issue their decision after a meeting next Thursday.

Mr. Obama sought the ruling after all the front-runners in both parties rejected public financing for the primary campaign, already under way, and prepared to forgo it for the general election as well, to avoid the spending limits that it imposes. That would make the 2008 general election the first outside the system since its creation in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal more than three decades ago.

Candidates say the amount of public financing — it would be about $85 million per nominee next year — has failed to keep pace not only with campaign costs but also with the potential for private contributions, meaning a candidate who does not seek donations early on risks falling far behind.

[XME]

BTW...If McCain can't stand up to the 527s, how is he going to take on Al Qaeda????

[XME]

Given McCain's most recent flip-flop on 527 ads, and that Obama always though 527s would cause a problem for opting out of public financing, he has every reason and right to opt out!

April 2008:

Matthews: Would you sit down with the Democratic nominee...and agree to them that there will be no outside sleazeball attacks...that you will tell your people you will condemn any attack?

McCain: I would love to do that. During the primary, there was a 527 that sprang up. And I asked them to stop. And I asked them to stop.

Matthews: Did they listen?

McCain: They stopped. They stopped.

June 2008:

McCain (when asked about the new 527 "Muslim" smear against Obama): I can't be a referee of every spot run on television,

[GLaB]

From http://www.barackobama.com/issues/ethics/

Barack Obama's Plan

Support Campaign Finance Reform: Obama supports public financing of campaigns combined with free television and radio time as a way to reduce the influence of moneyed special interests. Obama introduced public financing legislation in the Illinois State Senate, and is the only 2008 candidate to have sponsored Senator Russ Feingold's (D-WI) tough bill to reform the presidential public financing system.

[GLaB]

Rick,

Can you give us some insight on which other of his long-standing commitments Sen. Obama is planning to jettison now that it's convenient?

[vernonbc]

Please find me a link to a legitimate source where Obama ever committed to public financing. He has always said he would consider it IF agreement could be reached on outside sources of financing. Exactly what the article above is saying.