Obama’s Fundraising Success Puts Public Financing in Question
The Dallas Morning News reports that Barack Obama’s fundraising prowess has left Watergate-era campaign reforms a shambles, say advocacy groups ready to push for fixes to curb the influence of big money in politics. Obama raised more than $640 million overall, relying on a potent combination of small donors and large bundlers, including many in Texas. He’s the first White House candidate who didn’t take public money in the fall election.
“The public finance system in its current form is dead,” said Craig McDonald of Texans for Public Justice, a nonprofit group that tracks campaign donations. That system, which caps individual contributions and provides public money for presidential candidates, was set up in 1974 after the Nixon-Watergate scandal to try to limit special interests from bankrolling entire campaigns.
Most presidential contenders have solicited private contributions in the primaries, and all – until this year – took the public money in the general election. Reformers warn that if public financing fails, it would end one of the few checks on donors who unduly seek to buy access and affect public policy.
Obama defended his fundraising, saying he wanted to give all donors a chance to back him. John McCain, who accepted $84 million in federal funding for the general election, criticized Obama for not taking public funding. However, Obama drew few complaints from liberal organizations that have long championed efforts to regulate campaign money.
Contributing to Obama’s fundraising was a team of about 600 big-dollar bundlers, supporters who tap their friends, business associates and others for donations. They collected $50,000 to $200,000 from individuals for the Obama camp. Mr. McCain had a similar program during the primaries. The bundlers include interests that do business with government or could benefit from government decisions. Among them, industries seeking contracts or favorable tax treatment, trial lawyers looking to reverse restrictions on the ability of injured people to sue businesses, and those hoping to loosen federal regulations.
San Antonio lawyer Mikal Watts, one of 33 Obama bundlers in Texas, said public financing helps limit the inordinate influence of wealthy givers. But he said the system has to be funded adequately so that candidates continue to take advantage of it. Several government watchdog groups plan to press both Obama and Congress to make changes that assure the public financing system remains viable. They want state spending limits lifted, the federal match for small donations increased and better identification of contributors over the Internet. Most important, advocates say the amount available to candidates under the public-finance system must be boosted substantially to meet the ever-increasing cost of politicking.
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