Dean Asks Supporters on Public Financing

BOSTON -- Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean, making a powerful case to abandon the U.S. public finance system, will ask 600,000 supporters to decide whether he should take the historical step to avoid campaign spending limits, the Associated Press has learned.

Dean is asking his backers this week to vote by e-mail, Internet, telephone or U.S. mail on whether he should remain in the system or join President Bush in raising unlimited campaign contributions. He would be the first candidate in Democratic Party history to reject federal campaign money and the spending limits that come with it.

more.............

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-dean-money,0,2256164.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

Oh, that's neat.

Still waiting for the Blog to say confirm. An "important announcement" coming tonight, it says.

We have to opt out, and we all have to keep contributing. Or the terrorists, oops I mean the BFEE, win.

of the campaign"? Always on the edge of my seat with that man!

"Just eight months ago, the former Vermont governor committed to accepting taxpayer money and vowed to criticize any Democrat who didn't."

So letting his supporters decide lets him off the hook?

Medicare
Affirmative action
Retirement age
Only white guy talking about race
And on and on and on

Lord have mercy.

Can we really afford to be out spent by such a large degree? Bush is raising so much money, this allows Dean to come across as practical. I’m a for Clark so this post isn't the work of a Dean apologist.

...and taking the steps that will make this possible.

Ahh well, I guess that's a radical concept to some "Democrats".

Foswia, thanks for your note of support! I'll certainly be
urging Howard to turn down matching funds and I'll back my
vote with an appropriate additional campaign contribution.

Atlant

Think! And he isn't a whining demagogue like gepkerwards!

He is reaching out to his supporters and allowing them to decide. I personally will vote to reject the spending limits because, as much as I like the idea of them, the reality is that Bush plans to win this election through sheer saturation. To tie your hands over principle in an election that matters as much as this one is just fucking stupid.

Dean has about $30 million raised now ($5 million raised already in this fourth quarter) and qualifies for the full $18.7 million. The total cap is $45 million for the entire primary season. His campaign is already over the limit and couldn't accept all the federal matching funds!

Incredible. We're making history.

Here's the full text:

Your Country, Your Campaign, Your Decision

(The following is the text of an email that is being sent this evening from Governor Dean to all 484,000 members of our campaign.)

I am writing to place the most important decision of this campaign in your hands. We need to choose whether we will decline federal matching funds or accept them.

Our political system is drowning in a flood of large corporate interest money. The pens that sign the checks of the lobbyists in Washington are the same pens that write our legislation.

Oil corporations write energy laws in the Vice-President’s office. The pharmaceutical industry drafts our Medicare laws. Billions of dollars worth of contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan are awarded to Bush contributors. For the Republican primary election, even though he has no opponent, George Bush is raising $200 million from large corporate interests.

The Bush campaign is selling our democracy so they can crush their Democratic opponent.

We are building the only campaign that can stop this outrage. Our campaign has not been talk about future reform, it has been the action of real reform. Through hundreds of thousands of donations averaging $77, the impossible is happening -- ordinary Americans are poised to overpower the largest mass of special interest money our nation has ever seen.

But soon our opportunity to compete dollar-for-dollar against George Bush’s army of special interests may be gone. If we accept federal matching funds, our spending will be capped at $45 million -- and the greatest grassroots movement in the history of presidential politics will be stopped from raising money almost immediately and will reach the spending limit well before the end of the primaries. We will not have any funding until the Democratic convention at the end of July.

I have always been committed to public financing. But the federal matching funds law, though it was meant to provide an incentive for ordinary Americans to participate in the funding of our elections, is doing the opposite of what it intended. It could end up punishing a movement that has raised more from ordinary Americans than any campaign in history, while rewarding the campaign that has blatantly abused both the spirit and intent of campaign finance, selling off piece after piece of our country.

This is how the Bush campaign believes they can defeat us. If we accept federal matching funds -- and the $45 million spending cap that goes with it -- they will have a $170 million spending advantage against us. From March through August, they will be able to define and distort us, and we will have no way to defend ourselves.

We do have the option to go toe-to-toe with the big corporate donors of George Bush by getting 2 million Americans to give a hundred dollars each. By declining matching funds, we free ourselves to raise the money needed to defend ourselves during the crucial months from March through August against the attacks of George Bush and his special interest backers.

But let me be clear, if you decide to decline federal matching funds, it will require a significant commitment from all of us who have brought this campaign to this point. Declining matching funds means turning down almost 19 million dollars that the federal government would give to this campaign.

That means we will have to raise that money ourselves if we are to win the primary, beat George Bush, and take our country back. Declining federal money and funding a campaign with grassroots support has never been done before, and if you choose this option it will be a challenge -- but with your commitment, your dedication and your hard work, we can do it.

This decision is no longer mine to make. This is a campaign of the people, by the people and for the people. Your successful effort of raising a historic amount of money through small contributions has made this choice possible. This is why I am putting this decision in your hands.

I am asking you to vote on what kind of a campaign we will conduct from this point forward. No matter how well intentioned both our options are – the choice is difficult: do we choose option (a) to fund our campaign ourselves and decline matching funds, or do we choose option (b) and accept federal matching funds and the spending limits?

You will receive a ballot via email on Thursday and have until midnight Friday to vote. The results will be announced on Saturday.

The fate of this campaign rests in your hands, and I believe the future of our American democracy rests on your decision.

Sincerely,

Governor Howard Dean, M.D.

PS For more information about the vote, visit www.deanforamerica.com/decision.

I'm really enjoying this all now while it's happening and definetly will look back on it as one of the proudest times in our Country!

I think its great and it likes throwing back the same medicine ball to the republicans.

Trippi is a genius. Dean will take no heat now for opting out, since it will have been the supporters who made the choice, and clearly the only viable choice is to go toe to toe with *'s $200 million if we plan on winning the White House.

1. The media will be talking about this vote through Saturday. Dean will utterly dominate the political media through the rest of the week and beyond. (And that's without the potential SEIU story.)

2. The Dean campaign will also be free of state-by-state spending limits. (Not that those were a huge problem for them yet.) They can spend as much as they want in Iowa, New Hampshire, etc. Gephardt and Kerry are still operating under the state limits: and bumping right up against them now. So they have an awful decision to make: do they bust the caps, forego matching funds, and die gasping for funding as they pour what they've got into those states? Or do they restrain themselves, watch Dean spend as much (or as little) as he wants, and have some matching funds to keep the lights on if they get advance to the next round?

Clark is in a somewhat similar bind, although less so.

3. So many people (me included) now want to give more. If we vote "Yes" to bust the caps, we're taking on that responsibility to make it work for Dean.

4. I'm empowered as a supporter. It's not a top-down campaign. I have a personal stake in this candidacy and this campaign.

5. This sure looks like a mass democratic (small d) revolt against the bought-and-paid-for (and corrupt) Bush-Cheney Administration. We're changing the world and making history for $77 per person.

This is why Dean is my guy. I might agree more with the policies of some other candidates (Kerry comes to mind...but what an asshole!), but Dean's campaign has the promise of changing American politics. Who else can claim that?

I had planned to donate more, anyway. I was hoping to wait until after the convention, though. Do you think that would cause too much of a problem?

I agree. This is very exciting! :bounce:

He needs to paint Bush as a corporate whore in order to win this. In order to do that, he needs to keep himself clean.

DON'T DO THIS, DEAN!

On edit: On second thought, this is debatable. This doesn't cut off the $2,000 limit, right?
Well, Dean needs to make sure he isn't taking any money from corporations or proxies for corporations. I guess it's alright if he declines the limits, as long as he does that.

The thing is, he's getting that $77 (avg.) from so MANY people - people who still haven't come close to their $2000 max - that he's bumping up against spending limits meant for people who can get the usual suspects to pony up $2000 each. Thus, there's still plenty of gold in them thar hills.

I'm on the fence, too, not because Dean might look like a corporate whore (corporations aren't feeding him), but because this pool of cash might be more finite than I think. Trippi probably knows better than I do.

It didn't take that long last time to raise
$4.8 million did it? If he's the primary nominee,
this shouldn't be a hard goal to meet.

Let's keep this people powered.

wowzers

he wants to give Bush Boy a bit of his own medicine...

:dem:

This is clever. Those on his huge list will so want to avoid 4 more years of Bush Boy, that they will reach real deep into their online visa accounts to make sure Dean has the bucks he needs to prevent that.

Dean is sure setting himself apart from the others. He isn't my first choice but if he pulls this off, I'll support him all the way!

Reposted and amended from the locked thread on this topic...

Dean is asking his campaign supporters about the issue of declining matching funds, he is putting the question of whether to accept or decline matching funds up to his supporters, like me.

It's called democracy in action, and it works.

If the campaign votes to accept, then Dean will accept.

If decline, then decline.

Obviously, from the tone of the letter, it is clear that Dean is leaning towards declining matching funds, but the fact remains that this is up to US in the campaign to decide.

I have not decided how to vote yet, and I am torn between practical reality - that declining matching funds allows a lot more leeway and gives us a better chance over all...and idealism and political change - that campaign finance reform is crucial to defending our democracy from oligarchs and corporate interests....

My thinking is going in the direction of voting to decline matching funds, and here's why (an analogy).

We are engaged in a brawl with no rules. In this brawl, several of the participants have determined that in order for the brawl to better serve the nation, rules must be set to limit the way the brawl is fought. Unfortunately, a number of very big, very strong fighters in the brawl have determined that it is in THEIR best interests to keep he brawl rules-free, because their brawn benefits them in a free-for-all. Therefore, in order to reshape the rules of the brawl, we must first win the brawl by beating the living sh*t out of the brawny thugs. If we abide by the proposed rules before they are enacted, enforced, or rationalized to apply equally to all, then we will be fighting the brawny brawlers with one hand tied behind our backs. This will ensure, or at least make more likely, that we will be defeated, and that we will never have the power or the ability to make, enforce, or enact new rules on the brawl.

Therefore, I am thinking that first we must win, and THEN we must reformulate the rules of the game....

And I am leaning toward declining matching funds.
 

I really am an Al Gore supporter, pledged to support Al Gore, but this "Dean" guy keeps coming out with reasons to make me feel I must support his campaign. He's not the one I wanted to support, yet I feel compelled to support his campaign. Every time I see him I think, I didn't want to support this guy, but damn he is the only one that seems to stir any feelings and makes me feel that America still has a fighting chance to stop the right wing takeover. I know that with the help of all the little people, the every day working person he can defeat the corporate controlled GOP, just as George Washington knew that with the every day working people they could defeat the British, yes I remember the stories well, how the wealthy in Phildelphia wined and dined the British troops during that dreadful winter while Washington's rag time band of misfits starved and froze less than 20 miles away at Valley Forge - heck the only reason the British didn't march over and destroy Washington's army was the inconvience of the cold weather. On the other hand Washington knew it was the working people that needed to force the change, the wealthy were too interested in protecting their wealth. Now here we are again, a man that realizes America can only be saved by uniting the working people - it wasn't supposed to be Dean, but damn it if he is the one that steps up and leads then he is the one I must support. I may not be able to give much but I know every little bit helps and it adds up. They can laugh at us, just as they laughed at the rag time group at Valley Forge, but together we can take back America.

I keep thinking, "How's he going to get me next?" He almost even got my hubby with the Send a Happy Birthday to Howard Dean card. I told the dh, "I just spent $100 on a fund raiser. I'm not sending any more money until after the convention."

Now this!

remember that Dean's average donation is under $80.00. His money isn't coming from oligarchs and corporate interests. Cutting off donations from average people isn't going to do anything positive for campaign financing.

And I am an idealist, such as yourself. The simple fact is that Bush plans to win this election through sheer saturation...simply pounding the mindless masses with his bullshit messages to the point where they can't think rationally about who to vote for. So if Dean can come close to (or even beat) Bush's fundraising efforts, he can counter this effort with a much more reasoned ad campaign of his own. People will respond to that, I think.

His well could dry up real quick...

A Democratic experiment...let's see if the people in
smaller donations can actually fund a candidate right
into the White House. I think many on this website
would applaud that despite who they may be supporting
now.

And I've never donated even a dollar to a presidential campaign before, not even that little check box on the IRS form.

I hope he foregoes the matching funds. People power all the way.

This is very exciting... kick!

Asking the people to vote on this is an amazing and effective strategy. This gives a slight feeling of empowerment, which is so lacking in today's campaigns. I am going to vote that Dean reject the matching funds on the hope that regular people will finally stand-up to the oligarchs that have taken over the country.

Amazing tactic Joe Trippi, congrats. Noow, just make sure that Dean and Clark are the final combo, and that Diebold machines provides audit capability in 2004, then we can really take back our country...

...so it looks like the Dr. will be getting his $55 for his birthday from me.

I too am torn about him taking the matching funds. I'm leaning towards decline though. As his base grows he could continue to get more money.

Yes, truly democracy in action.

this AM, I was thrilled at yet another new twist to his campaign. I keep wondering - what will they think of next? It just keeps getting better. I am looking forward on voting 2 decline. Altho, this only covers the primary season - we R going 2 have 2 de-select squatter and we know his favorite pastimes are fundraising 'n golf!