Posted 9:32pm November 13

by Aaron Huertas
U-WIRE Washington Bureau

Showing optimism for the future of his campaign and its ability to raise money, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean became the first Democrat to opt out of public funding for a presidential campaign.

“Our campaign has not been talking of campaign finance reform, it has been actual reform,” Dean said during a speech announcing the decision. He and other members of the campaign then signed a “Declaration of Independence” from special interests in politics.

Public financing of a primary campaign would give a maximum of $18.7 million to the campaign, but would limit spending to $45 million until the general election season started. While Dean says he supports the public financing of campaigns, he said that since President Bush has already opted out of the system, he feels he must do the same in order to compete with Bush financially in the future.

Dean has already raised $25 million and hopes to raise $170 to $200 million in order to match the campaign money expected to be raised by President Bush.

Opponents in the race have criticized Dean’s move.

Representative Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., was quoted in The Washington Post as saying, “Just like President Bush, Howard Dean has effectively undermined campaign finance laws for his own personal, opportunistic political advantage.”

Dean started pulling away from the back of the other eight Democratic presidential hopefuls by raising an unprecedented amount of money over the internet. Dean’s campaign has relied on a connected base of 200,000 supporters who have given his campaign an average of $77.

This is in contrast to past election cycles and other current campaigns in which fundraising was dominated by connected groups of large donors giving the maximum of $2,000 each. Dean used the internet, mailings and phone calls to let his supporters decide whether or not he should forgo public financing. Out of 600,000 supporters, 105,000 responded and 85 percent urged Dean to opt out. Dean also used the balloting process to solicit over $5 million in additional contributions to his campaign over just two days.

Gary Jacobson, a professor of political science at the University of California in San Diego, said that Bush and Dean both forgoing public financing of their campaigns “reflects the reality that you can’t conduct a really serious campaign under the current rules.”

Jacobson said that since the nomination for each party is usually decided between January and March, candidates who spend most of their money during this time and accept public financing are not allowed to spend more until their party’s convention in the summer. This leaves the candidate at a disadvantage against an incumbent opponent with no opposition who can spend money attacking them unanswered for several months.

Jacobson also noted, “Smaller contributions are usually from people who are ideologically skewed to one side. It’s hard for a moderate to win in that game.”

He added that he believes most Democratic donors are holding back. “The problem seen this year,” he said, “is that there hasn’t been a narrowing down of the field yet. People aren’t sure where they want to concentrate their resources. People are holding money back and Democratic money will decide where the likely winner will be.”

According to www.opensecrets.org, a campaign finance watchdog organization, the amount of money each candidate has raised as of October 15th is as follows: President Bush — $84.6 million, Howard Dean — $25.4 million, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry — $20 million, North Carolina Sen. John Edwards — $14.5 million, Dick Gephardt — $13.7 million, Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman — $11.8 million, Retired Gen. Wesley Clark — $3.5 million, Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich — $3.4 million, former Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley Braun — $341,000 and the Rev. Al Sharpton — $283,000.