This week Feingold and collaborators released more information about their designs to resurrect the public financing system for presidential candidates, reports The Trail. The details:
The legislation would dramatically increase the amount of matching funds candidates received during the presidential primaries. Right now, candidates who opt to accept public financing (only John Edwards and Tom Tancredo have) receive a match for each contribution up to $250, but in order to get that money they must adhere to strict caps on how much they spend in each state. The new formula would provide a four to one match for up to $200 of an individual’s contribution received on or before March 31 of an election year. The match increases to five to one if the candidates remains in the race after April 1. And the state-by-state spending restrictions would be wiped away in favor of a $100 million overall cap.
It would become a little tougher to qualify for matching funds under the new proposal. Candidates would need to raise $25,000, instead of the current $5,000, in each of 20 states before becoming eligible. And candidates would have to agree to accept public financing in the general election if they wanted it in the primary.
Meanwhile, Ron Paul, the candidate for the Republican nomination with the best liberatarian credentials, is testing campaign finance laws by setting up a business for which people can purchase or “sponsor” flight time of the Ron Paul blimp. Since it’s a business and not a PAC or 527, it is not subject to federal contribution limits and/or disclosures.
It’s unclear if this will pass muster with the FEC. But, so far it seems like it will get off the ground (first scheduled flight: Dec 10th), and if it doesnt, it wont be a total loss as it is already generating publicity. And, of course, it might work. So the big question is, why didn’t anyone think of this earlier?