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Let it Die

by Steve Dasbach

Howard Dean has decided to forgo federal matching funds and

run his primary campaign with political welfare courtesy of

the taxpayers. Good for him.

It would be great if this were a decision of principle, if

Gov. Dean had belatedly recognized the immorality of taxing

Americans to finance his presidential aspirations. Alas, it

appears to merely be another example of Dean's political

opportunism.

Dean determined that with President Bush on track to raise

nearly $200 million dollars to finance an uncontested

primary election, it would be political suicide to stay

within the $45 million expenditure cap that goes with

accepting the political dole. While he made a big show of

"asking permission" from his supporters to flip-flop his

previous support of public financing, the whole exercise

was rigged to produce the outcome Dean wanted.

Of course, Bush's decision to forgo federal funds was no

more principled than Dean's. Like Dean, Bush still plans to

take nearly $80 million from the taxpayers to run his

campaign in the fall, and both of their respective

political parties will receive an additional $15 million or

so to stage 4-day campaign infomercials, otherwise known as

the national conventions.

Even without Bush and Dean feeding at the public trough

during the primaries, the public financing system is in

deep trouble. Estimates are that by 2008, there won't be

enough money in the system to take care of all the

political welfare kings and queens that can't compete in

fundraising with the likes of Bush and Dean and are

perfectly happy to let the taxpayers help foot the bill for

their presidential ego trips.

This shortfall is in spite of the move several years ago to

triple the check-off from $1 to $3, which was done to

address an earlier shortfall in the fund. The problem is

that taxpayers don't seem to like the idea of their tax

money going to fund political campaigns. Fewer and fewer

people check the box each year, even though we're assured

that checking the box won't increase our tax or decrease

our refund. While I haven't seen the latest figures,

participation had dropped to 12% a couple of years ago and

was heading for single digits.

Taxpayers are sending a clear message to politicians about

funding political campaigns with tax money - stop. The

system doesn't need to be rescued - it needs to be killed.

The truth is, the entire campaign finance system, from

public funding to contribution limits, is designed to

protect incumbents and frustrate challengers, especially

those who dare to bypass the Democratic and Republican

parties. It's not a coincidence that Congressional

reelection rates are 98.5% and climbing -- it's the law.

The traditional method to launch an insurgent, challenger

campaign was for the candidate to raise seed money from a

few individuals, in very large amounts, based on shared

positions on issues or personal relationships. For example,

Eugene McCarthy raised a few million dollars from a handful

of people opposed to the war in Vietnam to launch his 1968

insurgent presidential campaign. His strong showing in the

New Hampshire primary led to President Johnson's decision

to not seek reelection and paved the way for Robert

Kennedy's entry into the race.

That method of launching a campaign is illegal under

today's campaign finance laws, leaving personal wealth as

the only remaining loophole. Again, it's no coincidence

that the most significant independent presidential campaign

in the past 35 years was self-financed by billionaire Ross

Perot's in 1992, or that the Democrats and Republicans

increasingly turn to millionaires to challenge Senate

incumbents. It's the law.

The decisions of Dean and Bush to forgo federal matching

funds will likely lead to calls to bail out the system by

raising the amounts that can be matched, raising spending

caps, and increasing the 1040 check-off to as much as $10.

However, there's a much easier way to fix our rotten,

incumbent-protection campaign finance system.

Just let it die.

- About the author -

Steve Dasbach was National Chairman of the

Libertarian party, 1993-1998 and National

Director of the Libertarian Party, 2000-2002.

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