Edwards Increasingly Fenced In By Federal Matching Funds

[geek tragedy]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/11/12/edwards-increasingly-fenc_n_72190.html

The federal subsidies comes with strings attached that require Edwards to keep state-by-state spending, as well as the total amount he spends during the primary season, within preset limits -- limits which will not apply to his rivals, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, who are not accepting federal subsidies and whose expenditures are therefore limited only by what they can raise privately.

Iowa is the place where federal spending limits will most severely constrain Edwards. Getting supporters to participate in caucuses is much more expensive than getting them to vote in a primary. In addition to television, caucus turnout requires mass mailings, phone banks, extensive transportation systems to get people to and from dispersed caucus locations when temperatures average 17 degrees.

Of the top three candidates, Edwards is currently the underdog in Iowa. The average results from the five most recent polls of likely Iowa caucus goers gives Clinton a 6.4-point lead, with 30 percent; Obama averages 23.6 percent; and Edwards 19.6 percent, according to RealClearPolitics.

With so much riding on the outcome, Edwards is gearing up to bet the bank on Iowa, but his bank, by 2008 standards, is peanuts. Privately, Edwards' aides estimate that Clinton and Obama have together already outspent him in Iowa by $8 million, a margin likely to double by caucus day.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

1. He's A Smart Lawyer

I'm sure he'll find a way around the rules...

[geek tragedy]

2. He's taking public financing out of moral concerns, so

he'd have to be a hypocrite to do that.

He does have a hard cap of $43-50 Million, and there's no way he can lawyer his way out of that one.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

3. It Seems IA Is Almost As Much About Organization And Logistics As Actual Support

Of course you need a lot of supporters but logistics come into play when getting them to caucus...

My mom caucused for Ted Kennedy at a Daytona Beach straw poll in 1979... Daytona Beach was "Carter Country" and the Ted Kennedy caucusers were outnumbered and marginalized...

[jenmito]

5. You know he didn't REALLY take public financing out of moral concerns, right?

Because I know some people believe that...

[DemocratSinceBirth]

6. I Think Geek Tragedy Was Being Sardonic

DSB

[geek tragedy]

7. Indeed. n/t

[jenmito]

10. I had a feeling you were, but like I said, some people really believe it...

I guess I should've figured it out by the way you went on about him not wanting to look hypocritical. Sorry! :hi:

[jenmito]

8. Good. Just making sure since I didn't see the sarcasm thingy.

:)

[rinsd]

4. Anyone got figures on where and how much candidates have spent their money?

"The federal cap on total spending (television, offices, polling, etc.) in Iowa for Edwards is technically $3 million -- a figure that, when various exemptions and favorable rule interpretations are taken into account, can be pushed to just over $5 million, according to experts in campaign finance."

[liskddksil]

9. Which means that

once in office, Edward's will have no special interests to be beholden to other than the public, as he has refused lobbyists money. The same cannot be said of other candidates.

[geek tragedy]

11. "Once elected." Problem is that he hands a HUGE advantage

to the Republican nominee.

[MichDem10]

12. So are you backing a candidate based on $$$ or issues?

[rinsd]

14. Edwards is weak both on money and on issues.

He's spent much of 2007 running away from his brief Senate record.

The GOP will have him for breakfast should he outlast Hillary and Obama becoming the nominee. He will be in a severely weakened financial state dependent upon non coordinated pay media from the party & 527's while the GOP gets to blast him from the end of the primary process to the convention in late Aug. That he will get fair free media to compensate is a fairy tale.

[geek tragedy]

16. Has Edwards admitted that he

served in the US Senate?

[rinsd]

17. LOL.

[geek tragedy]

15. Issues. There are plenty of choices that

aren't screwed against the Republican.

[AtomicKitten]

13. Matching funds has always been a double-edged sword.

[Omaha Steve]

18. Won't there more than likely be.....

4 or so other Democrats deciding to take the public financing too? I don't think it is as big a problem as some people think. Marta and I make sure every year our tax return has the election fund checked. We do the state endangered funding also.