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Politics : WHO IS RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT IN 2004 -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mephisto who wrote (5466)	10/14/2003 8:50:23 PM
From: Glenn Petersen	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 10965

Dean keeps options open on public financing theunionleader.com News - October 14, 2003 By SHARON THEIMER Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Presidential hopeful and prolific Internet fund-raiser Howard Dean is taking another step toward possibly becoming the first Democrat to opt out of public financing. Newcomer Wesley Clark's campaign said Monday that he also is weighing whether to skip it. In the latest sign Dean may forego public campaign money and the accompanying spending limits, the former Vermont governor has begun gathering signatures to get on the North Carolina primary ballot. Candidates who accept public financing automatically qualify for a spot on the state's ballot; those who do not must collect at least 10,000 signatures from party members in the state, said Don Wright, a state Board of Elections spokesman. Dean spokeswoman Tricia Enright said Dean hasn't decided whether he will skip public financing. In the meantime, he is keeping his options open, she said. "I think that's probably a pragmatic course of action," Enright said Monday. President Bush is the only other presidential candidate to take out the petitions needed to gather signatures in North Carolina. In the 2000 primaries, Bush opted out of public financing and its overall and state-by-state spending limits. He raised more than $100 million. His Democratic challengers, including then-Vice President Al Gore, took the public money and were limited to about $40.5 million in spending during the primaries. Those who take the public money for next year's primaries will be limited to about $45 million in spending. They will receive taxpayer-financed "matching funds" for the first $250 of each contribution, up to a maximum of about $18.7 million. Bush is skipping the public money again for the primaries and plans to raise $150 million or more. In addition to Dean, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts and Clark, a retired general from Arkansas, are considering opting out of matching funds in the nine-way Democratic race. Clark began his campaign last month and raised at least $3.5 million in his first two weeks. He is waiting to see how his fund raising progresses before deciding whether to accept matching funds. In the meantime, he also is gathering the contributions needed to qualify for public money, spokesman Matt Bennett said. In July, Dean became the first 2004 hopeful to qualify for the public money by raising $5,000 in each of 20 states in donations of $250 or less. In March, Dean said he would definitely take public financing and would make it an issue if other Democrats didn't, but that was before his campaign began seeing a multimillion-dollar flood of donations through the Internet. Dean said in August that he was considering opting out. He raised about $15 million from July through September, more than double the expected third-quarter total of his nearest rival _ Kerry _ in the Democratic money chase. Dean has until January, when the first matching funds are made, to decide whether to take the public money.