FEC To McCain: Not So Fast on Public Financing Withdrawal
FEC To McCain: Not So Fast on Public Financing Withdrawal
By Emily Cadei, CQ Staff
The FEC put the brakes on John McCain ’s request to withdraw from public financing for his presidential primary campaign today, saying such a move requires the approval of four voting members of the commission. The agency also questioned a recent bank loan the campaign obtained as possible grounds for rejecting the campaign’s request to withdraw from the program. The FEC’s statement, released today, comes in response to a letter the McCain campaign sent two weeks ago informing the agency the candidate was withdrawing from the program, which he had applied for in the fall. The FEC currently lacks the four-person quorum necessary to vote on such issues due to a political stand-off over the confirmation of commissioners. It is unclear when the full commission would be able to vote on McCain’s request.
http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?parm1=5&docID=news-000...
Somebody enlighten me
what are the rules of public finance money? How does one qualify for it, and has Ron Paul qualified?
alan laney
Nice to see McCain's law come back to bite him
in his economic backside. I would like to see the FEC actually go after him, just to see him file a lawsuit challenging his own law. Ahh, but for a tiny speck of justice in the world.
_________________________________________
"An economy built on fiat money is a society on its way to ashes."
THAT
would indeed be ironic enough that I would raise a toast to it.. ;)
~Live life to its fullest, with an open heart, open arms and most important... an open mind~
Rules, Laws, they're for Plebs
"The lawyer, Trevor Potter, told the Associated Press that he believes McCain has withdrawn from the system, that McCain will not adhere to spending limits, and that the FEC can't stop him."
So, McCain is going to go ahead and do what he wants regardless of the rules----maybe he needs to explain his letter requesting to withdraw from the program is essentially a signing notice and as such, the policies do not apply to him. He's got a 'higher' purpose---rules obviously do not count. (great idea---sounds very presidential!)
Ummm
Have we not just been through 7 years of "the rules don't apply to me"? There's a new reason every week to NOT vote for McCain.
He's following
He's following the seventh rule:
"All animals are equal but some are more equal than others"
Even townhall is running with this...
http://www.townhall.com/news/politics-elections/2008/02/21/m...
However -- by the time the FEC has a quarom and makes a decison, it will be 2009... And it will have no teeth anyway.
Also, McCain has bought the townhall email list to solicit for campaign funds.
Yes I unsubscribed at that point! before I didn't bother as delete was simple enough...
cheers,
Should Dr. Paul go after matching funds?
I think that he should, if they are available to him.
After all, the republican establishment, the government, the media etc have all conspired to keep his message away from us.
$20-30 million dollars would go a long way to educating the public about the REAL conservative alternative once McCain blows it with his bimbo eruption(s), Keating 5, POW/MIA etc.
Or would it look bad now that we are this far into the campaign?
Against the Grain
RP won't accept matching funds, because those funds come from taxpayers in general. Using matching funds is tantamount to taking money from The People to fund campaigns for candidates those people may or may not support.
My friends....it's time for some straight talk
My friends......it's time for some straight talk. I am not electable. I have plans for expanding a never-ending illusionary war, more government spending, amnesty for illegal immigrants, and less personal liberty for americans. I don't receive donations or endorsments from anyone outside of the pork-barrel government establishment, and I don't really understand what is happening on the ground in Iraq because it does not really support my claims that Islamo-fascists are threatening us all. On top of all this, I had an affair with a lobbyist and I supported her economic interests with american tax-payer money.........oops......... It seems that someone has replaced my script- please just vote for me because I'm a war hero- independent and critical thinking is not necessary and does nothing but undermine my efforts and goals. Don't be a patriot, be scared.
Thank you my friends.......
After a crappy day
at work, it's good to come home to some great news, and a hilarious McCain spoof. Thanks for that!
"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors."
- Plato
"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors."
- Plato
ROFLMAO!!!
That was good...needed a good laugh today...
www.urbannaturals.net
LOL!!
Coffee came outta my nose on that one!!
F-U-N-N-Y!!!!
Nice
Everyone needs a little coffee-out-of-the-nose-laughing from time to time. This is a good day to be an RP supporter!!
And A Bad Day To Be McCain
(oh, wait; that's every day...)
Oh yeah
Bump, It is a great day and Dr. Paul somehow knew such things are coming ;)
Hehehe
Most notable among them is an overall spending cap of $54 million that would hang over the campaign until McCain officially accepts his party's nomination at the Republican National Convention in September. McCain has already spent $49 million, according to a report his campaign filed this week, though some of that could be backed out under various exemptions.
Might make the hoose a bit tighter for the poor guy... muhahaha
~Live life to its fullest, with an open heart, open arms and most important... an open mind~
Mcinsane is done my friends
Now it is our turn to come up with all other scandals we have against him: MIA/POW's and co
Washingtonpost
FEC Poses Fresh Problem for McCain
Updated 1:11 p.m.
By Matthew Mosk
Just when things seem as though they couldn't get worse for Ariz. Sen. John McCain comes a letter from the Federal Election Commission, alerting him to the possibility that he may not be able to withdraw from the presidential public financing system.
McCain applied to be certified for federal matching money last year, when his campaign was running on fumes. But unlike former N.C. senator John Edwards, McCain never actually took the federal funds. He was merely preserving that option. Once his campaign started to take off, he wrote to the FEC requesting to withdraw from the program.
The reply from the FEC (PDF), dated Feb. 19, and released by the FEC today, will almost certainly come as a shock to the campaign, which assumed McCain had withdrawn from the public system two weeks ago and was now free to spend money without regard to federal limits.
The reason this matters so much? Life within the public financing system, in which candidate contributions are matched with federal funds, comes with severe spending restrictions. Most notable among them is an overall spending cap of $54 million that would hang over the campaign until McCain officially accepts his party's nomination at the Republican National Convention in September. McCain has already spent $49 million, according to a report his campaign filed this week, though some of that could be backed out under various exemptions.
Still, the spending restriction would create an enormous crisis for a campaign that had planned to raise and spend huge volumes of money over the next six months.
The explanation for the FEC's letter is twofold. Number one, it says, the FEC will need to vote on his request to withdraw. But the FEC has not had a quorum since New Year's Day, when Congress deadlocked over four pending nominations from President Bush. Without a quorum to vote on his request, the letter says, he will have to remain within the system.
The second issue is more complicated. It involves a $1 million loan made to McCain in January by a Bethesda bank, for which he attempted to use possible future federal funds as collateral.
McCain's attorney has argued that the loan was careful to never put up as collateral the campaign's current request for federal funds. The lawyer, Trevor Potter, told the Associated Press that he believes McCain has withdrawn from the system, that McCain will not adhere to spending limits, and that the FEC can't stop him. Potter said the campaign did not encumber the public funds in any way.
"Well, it was done before in another campaign....We think it's perfectly legal. One of our advisers is a former chairman of the FEC, and we are confident that it was an appropriate thing to do," McCain said in a news conference Thursday.
But the FEC is requesting the McCain campaign present the government with more information about the loan before it can decide whether McCain will now be locked into the federal system.
Posted at 12:12 PM ET on Feb 21, 2008 | Category: The Green Zone
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