Senator John Kerry's strategists are considering whether to strike out the centerpiece of the political convention season -- his formal adoption as the Democratic party's official candidate -- to allow him to keep pace with US President George W. Bush's fundraising juggernaut.
Campaign finance regulations restrict the parties to US$75 million in public funds once a candidate is nominated.
While Kerry will be counting the pennies come July 29, when he is formally nominated at the convention in Boston, Bush will be allowed to keep raising funds until he is confirmed at the Republican convention in New York five weeks later.
"It's definitely an option," an aide to the Kerry campaign said on Tuesday.
Bob Biersack, a spokesman for the federal election commission, said there had been no formal approach so far to rule on the legality of a delayed nomination process.
Irresistible
But the attractions of such a move may prove irresistible to party fundraisers, who do not want the Democrats to be bound by fundraising restrictions during August, when Republicans will be allowed to spend freely.
"It really is a Republican advantage, and the Kerry campaign would like to do something about it," said Thomas Mann, a scholar in governance at the Brookings Institution.
This election has broken new ground for campaign fundraising, and spending.
Although the Bush-Cheney war-chest of US$201 million easily overwhelms Kerry's US$117 million, Democratic fundraisers believe that they can compete with the Republicans.
Kerry raised US$31.3 million in April -- double the US$15.5 million that Bush brought in.
The Democrats have digested the lesson of the 2000 election, when Al Gore finished the primary season strapped for cash and unable to compete with an onslaught of television ads by Bush's campaign.
With that experience in mind, Kerry declined to accept public funds during the primaries, calculating that it would free his hand to raise and spend throughout the summer.
Predicament
Experts on election finance say the roots of Kerry's predicament lie in the campaign finance laws' failure keep pace with the accelerated primary season, which produces a putative party leader as early as March.
"The rules simply do not address the fact that there is a long period when there is a presumptive nominee, and the general election season hasn't begun," said Michael Malbin, director of the Campaign Finance Institute.
"The law still pretends that there are two seamless seasons: a nomination season, and a general election.
"They don't recognize the fact that for half a year now we have had a shadow candidate," he said.
But Malbin acknowledged that the political cost of delaying Kerry's acceptance speech might not be worth the extra funds.
The early reactions by commentators were scathing, some predicting that Kerry would sacrifice his star turn -- his acceptance speech -- for the sake of advertising buys in August, when voters are on holiday or otherwise uninterested in politics.
"It really looks like he is gaming the system," said Larry Noble, director of the Center for Responsive Politics.
"If he is going to accept public financing for the general election he should abide by all the rules and not try and twist the system to financially level the playing field," Noble said.
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