Gov. Howard Dean (D-VT) is going to give up the federal matching funds for his campaign. His internet fundraising has been so successful that the federal program now acts as a cap on his revenue. Yet how does a good Democrat abandon public funds? Why he goes to the people, of course.
Governor Dean has put an open letter on his website asking his followers to decide the issue in an e-plebiscite. Registered backers will get a ballot in their e-mail that they have to return by Saturday. One would be appalled except that the governor has already made up his mind, and this plebiscite is about as fair as the one's Herr Hitler ran in the 1930s. In the letter, Governor Dean says, "By declining matching funds, we free ourselves to raise the money needed to defend ourselves during the crucial months from March through August against the attacks of George Bush and his special interest backers." What Dean backer would vote against that?
The matching funds idea has become a joke, and since Mr. Bush has chosen not to be bound by it, the Democratic candidate cannot afford to accept the money with its limiting conditions -- a $45 million cap on spending during the primary season. Mr. Bush, with no GOP campaign to fight, will have close to $200 million to spend any way he wants if his fund raisers reach their targets.
Mr. Dean is taking a calculated risk that his fund raising people can rival George Bush's. Perhaps they can. However, he has also just made Senator John Kerry the only viable alternative to a Dean nomination. Senator Kerry doesn't need to raise money. His wife is Teresa Heinz Kerry, of Heinz Ketchup fame. She's got about half a billion dollars to spend, unless there's a pre-nup to prevent it.
If anything good comes out of this race, it will be the end of the ridiculous federal matching funds program and the limits on donations. What is needed is not limits, but rather transparency. Let Halliburton donate all it wants to Mr. Bush -- just make sure the entire world knows that it did. Special interests don't flourish in the sunlight.