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Kerry Rejects Public Financing NewsMax.com WiresWASHINGTON – Democrat presidential hopeful John Kerry has decided to opt out of the post-Watergate public financing system and will take out a personal loan to help fund his struggling bid for the White House. He becomes the second Democrat presidential candidate to abandon the system, but unlike rival Howard Dean, he plans to keep his spending to the $45 million limit the program imposes for the primaries. He will not follow its state-by-state limits. Kerry's move marks the first time in the party's history that two contenders for the nomination have abandoned the system since the Watergate scandal some 30 years ago. It also is the first time the top candidates in the two major parties have decided to skip public financing. "As you all know, this has been a difficult week in our campaign, but I've been in tougher spots than this before, and I've fought back and won," said Kerry, a decorated Vietnam War veteran. "That fight begins today with a decision I'm making to give up federal matching funds in this campaign." The U.S. senator from Massachusetts fired his campaign manager Sunday, then lost his chief spokesman and deputy finance director, who quit within days. Kerry compounded the problem on Thursday by telling The Associated Press that his campaign would be "better off" without them. He later called the three former aides to apologize for the remarks.
Kerry's decision to skip the $18.7 million in public money comes despite a slowdown in his fund raising after a promising start, and the acknowledgment by his campaign that he cannot tap wife Teresa Heinz Kerry's multimillion-dollar Heinz food fortune for the race.
© 2003 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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