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2004 election costs will break records { March 7 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
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Cost of election expected to break record
By James Harding in Washington
Published: March 7 2004 21:13 | Last Updated: March 7 2004 21:13
As John Kerry's campaign prepares for a 20-state fund-raising drive and George W. Bush continues to add to his $150m-plus budget, the 2004 presidential race is set to funnel more money into fewer hands than any contest in US election history.
Rampant inflation has become a fact of American political life, but the early forecasts suggest this contest will break previous financial records.
"You could well have $1bn spent on this presidential election," said Thomas Mann, political analyst at the Brookings Institution and a prolific writer on campaign finance. His calculation is based not only on what the candidates raise, but also their parties and allied groups.
The sums are all the more remarkable this year as the funds are flowing into a smaller number of campaigns. In 2000, there were primary challengers for both the Republican and Democratic presidential nominations. In 2004, Mr Bush is unchallenged and Mr Kerry has secured nomination in a couple of months.
Steve Weiss at the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan group in Washington which tracks money in politics, says it is still too early to forecast final tallies for the 2004 elections.
One of the big unknowns this year will be the role of outside groups, such as Americans Coming Together and the Media Fund which Kerry aides say are aiming to raise $90m and $50m respectively.
These pro-Democratic groups are devoted to defeating Mr Bush by mobilising Democratic voters and running ads attacking the president. Their fund-raising targets are currently well ahead of the sums they have managed to collect, as their role in the election remains uncertain. Campaign finance watchdogs have argued that the groups - known as 527s - exploit a loophole in campaign finance laws and have asked the Federal Election Commission to apply the soft money ban to their work.
The Center for Responsive Politics calculated that the total cost of the 2000 election - including House, Senate and presidential races - was about $3bn.
Mr Bush's team reported total contributions of $145m as of the beginning of February and is known to have added at least $5m from the president's own fundraisers last month.
The Bush Cheney '04 campaign said it was aiming to raise $170m by the Republican National party convention in August, but it is widely estimated that the final total could be nearer $200m. In 2000, Mr Bush outspent Mr Gore by $185m to $120m - $67.5m of which was federal funds.
Mr Kerry starts out this year at a huge disadvantage to Mr Bush. At the beginning of last month the Bush campaign reported it had $104m on hand and no debt, while Mr Kerry had $2.3m.
Starting in California at the end of the month, Mr Kerry will embark on a 20-state, six week fund-raising tour intended to deliver about $20m in contributions.
Mr Kerry opted out of the federal funding system until after the convention, giving him room to raise more than any previous Democratic candidate to swell his coffers between the primaries and the convention.
The doubling of the limit for individual contributions to candidates to $2,000 will also mean more money goes into increase the presidential campaign budgets.
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